Chuck Versus the Daemon - Revised
by Neale
Summary: Totally AU. This is a revision of my old Chuck Versus the Daemon Steampunk Chuck story that I took down a year and a half ago. Pasts Collide CVD will finish here as I'm breaking it up at more logical points. The story continues in Daemons and Dragons - Revised soon (Probably today ; )
1. Chapter 1

**This is a revision of my old Chuck Versus the Daemon story, incorporating elements of some other steampunk stories that I've written since I took CVD down a year and a half ago.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Boston, Massachusetts, late 1870

Returning from a delivery of a brace of custom pistols to one of their patrons, Chuck looked up at the sign across the front of their building 'Bartowski and Son Engineering', and grimaced, they were doing precious little engineering work up here, most of the money that they were living on at the moment was from the custom gunsmithing that he'd been doing.

He was thinking back to that as he started down the carriageway to the yard at the rear of the house, as even now it was a large part of what was preventing him and his father from completely healing this rift that existed between them, because his father had come back from the Mexican-American war a changed man.

That war had cost his father a leg and a lot of friends, and he was vehemently opposed to anything to do with war, the military, or weapons in general because of that, but now they were having to rely on weapons to support their family while they tried to pick up 'real' work.

Chuck shook his head, he certainly hadn't helped things at all by running away in March eighteen sixty at eleven to join the fight against slavery. At the time, he had been quite indignant about the very idea than anyone should be owned by another, to be used and abused as they saw fit.

He'd believed his father to be weak because he wouldn't speak out against slavery (which, in fact, he'd opposed just as vehemently as his son), even though that would have brought nothing but trouble down on them, living in the French Quarter of New Orleans as they were. Not knowing what what his father had gone through, his youthful self righteousness had led Chuck to dismiss his father as a coward who wouldn't stand up for what was right and run away to join the fight against slavery up north against his father's wishes, as he was determined that someone had to do SOMETHING.

Chuck had hitched rides on the railroads going North, but he had found out along the way that the fight against slavery that he wanted to join had been all but stamped out, so he didn't know what to do. While he was in Kansas City though, someone had showed him the ad for the new Pony Express company ' _Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred_ ' That sounded exciting and he decided that that it should be a good way to get the money he needed together while he worked out how he could join the fight, so he'd headed north to St Joseph.

He was still shy of twelve when he arrived in St Joseph, Missouri in early April eighteen sixty, looking for the Pony Express company. When he did find the Pony Express Stables, their rider was nowhere to be found and they were desperate, so they just gave him a map and a pistol, threw him on a horse and told him if he could do what was needed, he had the job!

When he came back and signed up, he did so as fifteen year old Charles Barton from Boston, because he wasn't ready to be found and dragged back home yet. He just took a bed at a cheap boarding house when he was in town, as he was trying to get a decent stake together for when he managed to work out where to head to.

He was told he had to get himself a revolver when he signed on as a rider, to take with him for protection on the rides, but he didn't know the first thing about guns, so he asked the other riders. Most of them were happy to give him advice, but they pointed him at the stocktender at the Rock Creek Station, Mr Hickock, as the one who _really_ knew about handguns. One of the riders lent him his spare revolver until he could get one of his own, whispering to him him not to get one from the company, because they'd charge him forty dollars for something cheap that'd probably just blow up in his face when he tried to use it.

Chuck asked Mr Hickok about pistols when he saw him, and he was right helpful, telling him what to look for and saying "As you can see Charles, my personal preference is for the Colt Navy revolvers, but that new Remington Beals Navy that you've been loaned is a damned fine gun as well, especially if you like them newfangled cartridges*. They're not for me, I prefer to know exactly what's loaded in my guns, but it takes all kinds."

After talking to Mr Hickok, Chuck went out and bought himself a pair of the Beals Navy .38 cartridge revolvers, along with a couple of extra cartridge cylinders, as the extra cylinders the other rider carried to be able to quickly swap in a full cylinder for a quick reload made a lot of sense to him, as did the generally quicker reloading and greater reliability of the cartridges, though he did get one cap and ball cylinder as well, just in case.

When he was riding his stages, he'd normally just carry one pistol with extra cylinders, but when Mr Hickock was teaching him to shoot, he used both of them, set up just like Mr Hickock had them. He gave him lessons when Chuck handed off to another rider at Rock Creek and was waiting to head back. There were a number of incidents in the time he was working for the Pony Express company, and a whole lot more in the War, where he had to use what Mr Hickok had taught him, so he was right grateful for those lessons.

Even though Chuck hadn't been expecting to get more than two or three months at most work out of the Pony Express company before he moved on, he was regarded as one of their best riders, so he ended up keeping that job until they shut down at the end of October, sixty one. He also kept getting pay rises whenever they thought he was thinking of leaving, so he had over two thousand dollars in the bank by then.

While he was working for them, he bought his Kentucky Saddler mare, Betsy, off the company cheap when they decided she was ruined because she had been pushed too hard and came up lame. With enough care and attention though, Betsy came up fine, so he had a really good horse to move on to the next endeavour with when the time came, and she was with him through everything for years after that.

* * *

He didn't really know how he ended up in the cavalry, all he remembered was that he was made to go out drinking with the other Pony Express riders the day that the Pony Express shut down, and everyone was talking about 'What do we do now?' Next thing he knew, he was waking up in the barracks with his head feeling like it was splitting open, wearing a uniform! None of the other three ex-Pony Express riders who woke up in the barracks with him could remember what happened either, but they were shown where they'd signed to join up, so they just went along with it.

At the time he signed up, the Cavalry was having a lot of trouble getting all the horses and firearms they needed for the new recruits, so they were happy to let Chuck use his own. The quartermaster just made an official record of each item, identifying them as his personal property (and complimenting him on them and their condition), so Chuck just kept using Betsy and his Navy revolvers. After a bit, he issued Chuck with a pair of those Remington Cavalry Revolvers that had been created to match the Colt Walkers.

As of the start of the war, the regiment's official rifle and revolver had been the Sharps cap and ball carbine and the Colt 1860 Army (also cap and ball), but the quartermaster had some of the big Remington horse pistols with cartridge cylinders, complete with their saddle scabbards etc, in the stores from when they had been issued for trials. After some discussions between the senior officers about their impressions of Chuck, he issued the Cavalry revolvers to him. This drew comments from some of the men, as it was usually only the senior officers and sergeants who got those, but no-one was about to question the senior officers.

Their regiment had enough people (especially the experienced officers, NCOs and troopers) who _only_ used cartridge revolvers and rifles that the quartermaster ensured that they always had supplies of all the cartridges that were used. This made it easy for Chuck, as he could just draw supplies of cartridges for the revolvers.

About six months after Chuck joined, the regiment was finally supplied with their 'proper' weapons, and some of the new officers tried to insist that he change to the approved Sharps carbine and Colt revolver like the other troopers, but one of the senior officers overheard this and dressed them down, saying. "The boy knows how to use his weapons and that's what matters, so stop trying to interfere with him!" The younger officers backed down, but Chuck wasn't popular with them after that.

Chuck was often being sent out as a scout, because he and Betsy could slip past most regular forces without detection and he had a keen eye and sharp mind, so he was good at gathering the information that they needed, but he still had to get into the thick of things all too often for his liking. He wished that he could forget about most of what happened in the war, but he couldn't. He'd quickly found that being in the cavalry involved a lot more than riding horses, that part was easy, but the killing and the death, that was something that he had a hard time getting out of his head.

Most of the sergeants and officers knew that Chuck didn't like killing, but they also knew that when he was in the thick of it, he did what had to be done better than most. The only reason that he hadn't been promoted was that it was commonly known that half of the troopers had sons who were bigger than him, so it was doubted that they'd take orders from 'the boy' as they called him.

* * *

Chuck's lot in the war changed in February, sixty three, after he was called to step in for the Regiment's ranking engineer after he was seriously injured in a bombardment. Chuck had spent what time he could with the Regiment's engineers, just like he had with the railroad engineers back in St Joseph, and they liked having him around, Captain Banner in particular, because he was a very bright young man with clever ideas who was always eager to learn whatever he could (not to mention that he had designed and built his father a clockwork leg that functioned almost as good as the real thing back when he was eleven).

That was why Captain Banner called for Chuck after his leg had been all but blown off in the bombardment. The mission that Captain Banner was being sent out for was crucial, as they had to take out a bridge to cut off the Rebs' supply chain damned quick if they were to stop them from getting the foothold they needed north of the river to push the Union forces back.

Captain Banner was by far the best and most experienced of the regiment's engineers, and this job would need an engineer who really knew what he was doing to determine a suitable placement for the powder that they had, one which would create enough damage to ensure that the Rebs couldn't just quickly patch up the bridge and go back to using the railroad to supply their troops. Yes, Captain Banner was desperate, but he also saw something in Chuck and believed that he could do this, where the other engineers couldn't.

While they were trying to stop the bleeding from his leg and save his life, Captain Banner filled Chuck in on what needed to be done and sent him off with the team who had the powder. The Sergeants and experienced troopers who made up that team were glad that it was Chuck that Captain Banner was sending in his place, as neither of the Regiment's other engineers had been out of West Point for much more than a year or so and they didn't have any real combat experience, so like most new officers, they tended to get people killed.

Captain Banner normally did these hard jobs, because he was the only one who could be depended on to get them done, those other two were likely to get them all killed by slipping up and giving them away at a critical time. They knew that Chuck certainly knew what he was doing as far as slipping behind enemy lines and fighting if he had to went, he was one of the best scouts they had, and Captain Banner wouldn't have given him this job if he didn't think he could do it, so they trusted Chuck to come through for them.

While Chuck didn't have a fraction of the experience of most of the old soldiers he'd been sent with on this mission, he and Betsy knew what they were doing, and he'd actually been the one who'd scouted the way through for this, so they had little trouble quietly slipping through a gap in the Confederate lines to get to the bridge that was their objective. When they got there, the others hid in the bushes while Chuck examined the structure and tried to determine where the barrels of powder they had would do the most damage. Unfortunately, when he decided where they needed to be, that point was over two thirds of the way up the structure, so they had to hoist the barrels of powder up to there and lash them in place without alerting the Rebs patrolling up top.

Just as they got everything in place and were setting the fuses, they heard the approaching train. There must have been a line of hills or something on the southern side of the river that had blocked the sound, because the train was almost to the bridge before they heard it. They quickly lit the fuses and started scrambling back down, but they had to be quiet to avoid tipping off the Rebs up top until it was too late, which meant that it was taking them longer to get down. Because of that, half of them hadn't reached the ground before the first of the barrels of powder went up.

When the first charge blew, they were blown off the bridge, but luckily a broken arm was the worst injury that came of that, and they quickly helped each other up to try and get out of the way before the second charge blew. The second charge sprayed them with pieces of wood, but while most of them got a few wounds from this, those wounds weren't enough to stop them getting out of the way before the bridge came down on them.

The ones who got down first watched as the bridge swayed one way when the first charge blew, then twisted back the other way when the second charge went off and tore itself apart as it collapsed. Chuck's charge placement had been right on the mark, because it brought down over two thirds of the span, and it was looking as though it was going be more than that when it stopped coming apart.

At that point, the loco of the Confederate supply train reached the other side of the bridge, but they had no way to stop when they saw the bridge go up. As soon as the loco, tender and the first couple of cars went out onto what was left of the southern end of the bridge, it collapsed, taking the loco with it, and once the loco and first few carriages went over, they dragged the rest of the train down with them.

They could see men jumping off the train as it headed onto the bridge, but they didn't wait to see what happened to them, because the Rebs up top had spotted them and started shooting by then. They got the trooper with the broken arm up onto his horse and took off up river as quick as they could, trying to get far enough in front of them to be able to hide and slip back through the Confederate lines unnoticed. Luckily their horses were waiting near by, ready to go, while the Rebs' horses were mostly picketed, and getting the mules that had been carrying the barrels of powder to go the other way when they got to the top of the embankment helped confuse things, because the Rebs chased after them in the dark. That gave the team the chance they needed to slip back through the Confederate lines once things had quietened down after those chasing had passed.

An hour and a half later, Chuck limped into the hospital tent where Captain Banner was laid up after they finished taking his leg off. Chuck had the two sergeants from the mission with him, and the dirt and soot on their faces and the cuts and scrapes they were all showing said that they'd been damned close to the explosion when it went up, but the proud smile on Chuck's face also said that they'd been successful.

Banner asked "How much damage was done to the bridge?"

Sergeant Parker laughed "What bridge Captain Banner? It's gone! The Rebs won't be using that railroad to supply no-one no more!"

Banner was in pain, so he snapped "Talk sense Sergeant! How much of the bridge is gone? How long would it take for them to repair it?"

"Sorry Cap'n, I guess I wasn't clear, the boy spent a while looking over the bridge, then he set the charges in two spots and as it came down, it pulled more of the bridge down with it. Over two thirds of the span had collapsed into the river by the time the Reb supply train went out onto the unsupported southern end of the bridge, and that brought the rest of it down. I'd say that over seven eights of the bridge, along with that supply train, are in the river now, and a lot of the wood was floating away, last I saw. Even before the train collapsed what was left on the other side, it would have been too much damage for them to repair, but now, there's nothin' left. It would take them months in peacetime to build a new bridge, and I don't see them being able to do it at all while we're at war."

Banner looked at Chuck in amazement, saying. "Good work Chuck! I knew I could count on you, but you've obviously exceeded my expectations! Now I need you to stay here in camp until we've reported to the Colonel about this, so you can't go anywhere."

He turned to look at Parker "Sergeant, please ensure that the officers know that Trooper Barton is to be kept out of any patrols or actions until after he's seen the Colonel, we'll work out what happens after that."

Parker saluted "Yes sir, Captain Banner!" He hesitated "And may I say sir, I'm damned glad that you ain't dead? I was sure that you were a goner when I saw you with your leg blowed off like that!"

Banner gave a wry laugh "Thank you Sergeant Parker, so was I." He reached out to squeeze Chuck's shoulder "You did a great job Chuck, from what the Sergeant says, I doubt that I could have done as well."

Chuck blushed at the praise "Thank you sir!"

With that, the head nurse shooed them out of the tent.

* * *

What Chuck didn't know at that point was that Captain Banner demanded pen, ink and paper, and started writing letters first thing the next morning. He talked one of the other engineers into going down with one of the scouts to examine the site and write a report on what had been achieved, and he had the sergeants on the mission write reports about what happened as well, or at least narrate and sign the reports.

Captain Thomas Banner was a highly respected officer, in the army at large as well as the Corps of Engineers, so when he made the case for Trooper Charles Barton to be transferred into the Corps of Engineers and commissioned as a First Lieutenant, using the supporting reports from the experienced and respected Sergeants who had accompanied Chuck on that mission, the other engineers with the Cavalry Regiment and the Regimental Officers and Non Commissioned Officers, it was listened to.

Before the recommendation for Chuck's promotion went off to the War Department though, Captain Banner had made a case to the Regiment's Colonel to have Chuck assigned to assist him. Once the doctors signed off to say that Captain Banner was fit to stay in camp once he was out of hospital, the Colonel approved this request and made Chuck a Brevet 2nd Lieutenant without question. He knew he wasn't likely to get another engineer of Tom Banner's calibre, so having him in camp to advise and direct the other engineers and his new 'apprentice engineer' was a boon that he didn't think he could afford to turn down. Besides, he agreed with Tom that the boy had the makings of a damned fine officer and engineer.

It took two months for the paperwork to come through to confirm that Brevet 2nd Lieutenant Charles Barton of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment was now 1st Lieutenant Charles Barton of the Corps of Engineers, attached to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. By that point, Captain Banner's promotion to Major that the Colonel had submitted previously had come through. Assigned to Major Banner, Chuck was getting the education in engineering that he'd been missing out on since he left home, with the added bonus of also learning whatever else that Major Banner had put together and picked up in the Mexican-American war and the current war.

Chuck blossomed as an engineer, and quickly built his own reputation of being a fine young officer and engineer. That was why, in November, sixty three, Major Banner told him and the Colonel that the Regiment didn't need him any more, as Lieutenant Barton knew enough to take over from him, and with his leg, he couldn't handle another winter in the field. The Colonel was grateful for everything Tom had done when he stayed on after he lost his leg and wasn't about to make him suffer any more than he had to, so Major Banner went home, and Chuck pretty much took his place as the Regiment's lead engineer.

* * *

By and large, the rest of the war wasn't too terrible, and as one of the engineers, Chuck didn't get involved in the battles as much as he had as a trooper, though he was still involved in some actions, and he was picked for most missions like the one that he had been commissioned for.

In February, sixty five, Colonel Sanders had given Chuck a Brevet promotion to Major and used the reports of 1st Lieutenant Barton's many achievements and actions to support recommending him for permanent promotion to Major. The paper pushers in the War Office had deemed that at twenty, Lieutenant Barton was much too young to hold the rank of Major, but while they received no official notification, Chuck's permanent promotion to Captain Charles Barton was approved in March.

For all of the small decisive actions they were involved in, the Regiment wasn't involved in terrible battles, not until the last battle of the war for them in early April eighteen sixty five. They suffered heavy losses in that battle, losing the Colonel, their senior officers and most of the men. What possibly hit Chuck hardest though was that he lost Betsy in that battle, as she had been with him from before the war, only to be lost in a senseless battle they had no hope of winning. After that battle, the once proud 2nd Cavalry Regiment was reduced to a single company under the command of a Major who had no idea what he was doing, and that Major was the reason why they were all but wiped out when they were assigned to hold the Cripple Creek Railroad Junction.

* * *

What Chuck hadn't known (just one of the many things he hadn't known) was that his family had sold everything they had to come north to find him and bring him home safe after the war between the States started. It had taken them almost a year to sell what they had in New Orleans and get the money they needed to follow him in the war economy, and then several months more to get north of the Mason-Dixon line, battling to get the travel passes they needed to move into Union territory, and then rather longer before his father could manage to track down and make contact with a senior officer who actually remembered him from West Point and the Mexican American War.

When they finally reached the north, Stephen had gone straight to the Department of the Army, but they had just dismissed him as a southern liar, if not a Confederate spy, and threw him out when he tried to identify himself as Brevet Colonel Stephen Bartowski, a veteran of the Mexican-American war, refusing to even look at any of the documentation he had to prove this.

When Stephen finally managed to locate people who remembered him and were prepared to help him, they'd spent months chasing down all the Charles Bartowskis who were listed in the Army, but none of them was him.

Just as they were beginning to give up hope though, the report of the actions of one Charles Barton in what was being called the Battle of Cripple Creek came across the desk of one of his father's old friends, Brigadier General Cranston. Reading this report, he was struck by its similarity to the reports of Stephen's final action, where he'd lost his leg (for, in fact, Chuck and his father were very much alike in their ways). At that, he'd immediately wired the description that Stephen had given him for Charles down to the Depot Field Hospital in City Point where this Charles Barton was being treated, and the reply came back right smart that that was Colonel Barton all right.

General Cranston immediately arranged for travel papers and transport for the Bartowskis to take them to him. When they'd arrived at the hospital about three and a half weeks after the Battle of Cripple Creek though, the doctors were still doubtful whether he would live.

When they saw him, his parents and sister had cried at the state he was in, as he was all but shot to pieces and barely hanging on by a thread. His older sister Ellie was every bit as much of a prodigy in medicine as he was in engineering though, and she'd taken over his care. Under her care, bit by bit, he had improved until he was out of danger, but that day did not arrive until after the end of the war.

What they were told about what had happened to him, and what he'd done in that battle, chilled them, and this had only stoked his father's hatred of war.

That was why, in early May sixty five when that pompous General told them grandly (as if this were a personal boon from HIM) that Charles had been awarded a the Medal of Honor and promoted to the permanent rank of Lieutenant Colonel (with a brevet promotion to full Colonel as well) for what he'd achieved that day, especially given the grave injuries that he'd received, Stephen had bodily thrown the man out of Chuck's room. (They had been told at the time that these awards had been supported by his commanding officers, but months later Stephen was advised by a friend that it had been recorded in Chuck's file that the War Office had reversed their previous decision to refuse his permanent promotion to Major on the grounds of his youth, and had extended it to Lieutenant Colonel under direct orders from General Grant.)

There'd been considerable blustering, though nothing else, over Stephen's treatment of the General and following that the survivors of the battle from his company had mounted a guard to keep everyone else out of Chuck's room.

When Chuck had improved to the point where they were confident that he would live (thanks to Ellie), the family had to face another problem. They had nothing, as they'd sold everything and spent all of that money trying to find Chuck. While Chuck had over five thousand dollars in the bank from his Pony Express and Army pay, they couldn't get to that money under the conditions that prevailed at the end of the war.

That was why, when it was announced that the worthies of Boston had decided to gift their greatest hero, Colonel Charles Barton, the decorated Hero of Cripple Creek, with a house, they'd reluctantly agreed that they had to accept it. What other choice did they have? There was nothing left for them to go back to in New Orleans, and they couldn't get their hands on the stake to set themselves up anywhere else.

They'd gone to Boston, Chuck had accepted the gift of the house (even though he'd been hardly able to stand through the ceremony), and they'd settled in to try and make a new life for themselves there.

This house wasn't the last of the gifts that the grateful city bestowed on their hero, though. An endowment was also made that was more than enough to pay the fees for him to get his engineering degree at Harvard, and he'd gratefully accepted this, though he chose to study at the new Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston Tech to the locals) rather than Harvard, as it offered the promise of a better 'real' engineering qualification.

It took Chuck quite some time to recover from the injuries he'd sustained, and he'd enrolled as Charles Bartowski, rather than Charles Barton (after he'd learned his father's true story, he felt that he'd slapped him in the face quite enough), so he'd actually started in sixty six as Boston Tech was getting to the point of having proper facilities.

They were also given assistance to get Ellie admitted into a good medical program in Boston, with all of her accreditations from New Orleans being accepted to boot, so that she could continue from the point she'd left off in New Orleans. The endowment that Chuck had received was actually generous enough to cover Ellie's fees as well, if barely.

* * *

While Chuck and Ellie were studying in their respective fields, Stephen was trying to re-start his engineering business, working out of their house, but it was difficult to crack into that market in Boston, especially as a southerner. Boston had a number of large engineering concerns already, and they were quite effective at blocking others from intruding into their customer base, even if the new concerns were working in areas that they didn't have any particular interest in.

That was why they had been forced to start accepting commissions for custom gunsmithing. While at a dinner with the family of a friend of Chuck's from college, his friend's father had been bemoaning the fact that he couldn't get a decent gun made. Without thinking, Chuck started to say that he could do that for him, but caught himself just in time (thinking of his credibility as an eighteen year old boy) and said "I… I'm sure that my father could do that for you Mr Weston." Mr Weston had looked dubious, so Chuck made a further offer "How about this Mr Weston, you give me the specifications of what you want and he builds it, if you like it, you pay us (he made a quick calculation in his head and named a figure), if not, we keep it and it won't cost you a thing?"

Mr Weston couldn't pass up an offer like that, and they agreed, with Chuck going off with the specifications of what he wanted to make him the gun. Mr Weston was very happy with that gun, and he commissioned more pieces from them straight away. Soon they had orders from his friends as well, and it didn't take long before they were getting requests from New York, Washington, even from down in the south, the Bartowski pieces were all the rage.

The problem was that this was a two edged blade, on one hand the gunsmithing was bringing in rather more money than his father could with his engineering commissions, and the family was looking financially secure for the first time since they'd came north. The obverse of that, however, was that his father had to play at being the Bartowski Gunsmith (as Chuck's point about his credibility, being just eighteen, was quite apt), but the sight of a weapon only served to remind Stephen of the leg and friends he'd lost to things like this, not to mention almost losing Charles himself, so that sat between them.

Also, so long as he'd followed Ellie's rules, Chuck's health had kept improving, however he wasn't well enough to work himself as hard as he'd had to to keep up with all the demand for the Bartowski pieces, and overworking himself this way had made his health deteriorate again.

It had taken Ellie threatening to ruin the business by exposing him as the Bartowski gunsmith to force him to agree to reduce the number of commissions he accepted. It was his father, though, making the Herculean effort to swallow his pride and tell him that he'd gotten the family out of financial difficulty, but that wasn't worth it if they lost him now, which made him follow through on the commitment he'd made to his sister.

And that was where they were now, four years later, he'd graduated from Boston Tech (or rather MIT), and his sheepskin was up on the wall in their office with his father's and Ellie's, two engineers and a doctor. Papa had been so proud the day he'd taken down the 'Bartowski Engineering' sign, to replace it with the 'Bartowski and Son Engineering' one.

He'd kept to his promise and kept the gunsmithing workload down (even though that still brought in more money than the engineering commissions that he and his father could get), and as his health had improved over the years, he'd spent more and more time working with his father when he wasn't studying. He'd even had a social life, well he had until he'd had his fingers well and truly burnt by that girl he'd met through Ellie's beau, THAT was a pool he had no intention of dipping into again any time soon!

 **A/N: This is a steampunk world coming** **out of** **the American Civil War, and as such the background is more violent than** **contemporary** **Chuck.**

 ***** **This world is slightly different from our's, many things happened earlier than they have in our world, and slightly differently. Engineers and tinkerers are working on mechanical concepts and some are 20-30 years or more ahead of when they came up in our world.**

 **The Confederacy also has their share of people who understand technology and are putting on a better show on this front in the War Between the States.**

 **Colt and S &W's strangle hold on revolver developments was broken by the government in '56 and that led to a wider adoption of cartridges in revolvers and rifles before the War Between the States.**

 **Some makers like Sharps and Remington sold cap and ball and cartridge versions of their firearms side by side, letting the customers choose what they wanted, while others like Colt tried to force the customer to take what they were offering, trying to maintain the control they had when they were the only game in town. (Picture Colt as the Microsoft of 1860)**

 **The more open market also emboldened some makers to offer versions of things that the original makers had abandoned to meet the demand of what people were asking for, such as** **the fictitious Remington Cavalry revolver taking over from** **the** **legendary** **Colt Walker revolver.**


	2. Something Wicked This Way Comes

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Chuck shook his head and pushed his wool gathering back down, amazed that a simple recollection had taken him on such a journey. With that, he reached the gate into the yard and reached over the top of the gate to unlatch it, smiling to himself as he thought that at times it was quite useful to be such a 'tall sprout', as Ellie so liked to call him. The house was strangely quiet though, as while Ellie wasn't likely to be home just yet, Mama and Papa should be. Chuck had a quick look around, and when he couldn't find his father anywhere, he headed up the rear steps to their apartments.

As he came in the back door though, he KNEW that something was wrong, because his mother should be clattering about and singing in the kitchen as she made their dinner, but the house was deathly quiet. He carefully reached into the umbrella stand beside the door, trying to draw the cutlass that his father kept hidden there behind the umbrellas without making a sound.

Once he had the blade in his hand, he crept down the hallway as quietly as possible. He'd had plenty of practice at that, sneaking around in the woods in the war as he mapped out enemy positions and strengths and safe routes, so he was certain that he hadn't made a sound, but the man who was standing in the kitchen whipped his head around to stare at him as he reached the doorway to the kitchen.

That man shouldn't be there, and he was obviously a threat, but something else drew and held Chuck's attention at that point, his mother, who was laying deathly still on the floor with the handle of a kitchen knife protruding from her breast.

When he gave in to the fact that no amount of staring at her would make his mother be alive, he raised his eyes to the man standing over her, who was leaning weakly back against the kitchen cupboard. Who was also, he now noted, holding a blood soaked dishcloth to his side.

Once he'd met the man's eyes though, he wasn't able to look away. The man's gaze held an unholy hunger, and after a moment he smiled, a cold, ravenous smile, as he spoke. "Yes, you'll do, the woman has damaged this body, but your's will do to replace it."

Chuck was held prisoner by that gaze, and against his will he took a step forward, and then another, even as the man shuffled towards him. Before he realised it, Chuck was standing right in front of the man and he felt his free hand (the one not holding the bloody dishcloth to his side) grip at his shoulder.

As he looked into those eyes, it felt as though his soul was being ripped from his body, and he could feel himself fading away. Just as he began to give in to it though, he realised that if he did that, Ellie would be at this creature's mercy when she arrived home soon for dinner, so he must fight it!

With that realisation, he tried to tighten his slack grip on the cutlass that hung by his side as he struggled to raise its tip to the figure in front of him. He marvelled at the fact that the cutlass hadn't slipped from his fingers yet, and nor had this creature seen it. The creature smiled cruelly as Chuck struggled against him, keeping his eyes locked on Chuck's as he redoubled his efforts to gain control of him.

He must have presumed that the tensing in Chuck's shoulders as he strained to raised the cutlass was merely him struggling against giving in to him, because when Chuck finally managed to raise the tip high enough to line it up with his target and put his every effort into thrusting it up through the creature's heart, twisting it to rip that heart apart, it was a total surprise to him.

The compulsion that held Chuck disappeared as the creature's eyes widened in realisation that it was dying, but then something else happened. As he died, his gaze locked with Chuck's, and something flooded into Chuck from him. It seemed to take just a blink of an eye for this, whatever it was, to happen and then the man abruptly collapsed to the floor, pulling the hilt of the cutlass from Chuck's still slack grip.

Chuck collapsed right after that, because it felt as though his skin were on fire and his heart were about to explode. As he lost consciousness, his last thought was that he must have lost his mind, as these images that were flashing through his head were just not possible!

* * *

The next thing Chuck knew was that Ellie was calling his name, trying to wake him, he had no idea of how long he'd lain there like that, but that didn't matter. He hastily pushed Ellie aside (not noticing how she bounced off the cupboards) and made sure that the man was dead, then he grabbed her by the shoulders and asked "Devon, where is he?"

She was grimacing in pain, but said "He's just left after walking me to the door."

Chuck leapt up and raced to the windows opening onto the street and throwing them open (destroying them the process), he shouted "Devon!"

It wasn't long before he heard heavy footsteps pounding down the street and then Ellie's beau was calling up to ask "Charles, what's wrong, has something happened to Ellie?" Chuck called back down "Ellie's fine, but our parents have been killed Devon, I need you to get the police and bring them back here quick!"

After staring at him in shock, Devon nodded, and turned to run off to the police station.

At that, Chuck turned to hurry back to Ellie, but she flinched back from him, putting her hands up to ward him off in fright. Only then did he realise that he must have hurt her, and he stayed a few steps away from her, whispering his apology.

Looking back at the front window, though, he realised that he didn't have any time to waste, so he spoke to get her attention. "Ellie, El!" She looked at him "I'm truly sorry if I hurt you, you know I would never mean to, but before Devon or anyone else comes, there is something I have to tell you!"

She nodded, but didn't say a word, she just kept looking at him, so he plunged on "That thing in there is, or at least was, one of the Old Ones, the Daemons. Do you remember the stories that Grandpa Helsing used to tell us about the Old Ones like Prince Vlad Dracula?" she nodded again, afraid.

"Unfortunately they weren't stories! When I killed it, it's energy, whatever it was, and all its memories just flooded into me. I feel as though I am about to explode, as though my skin can't hold it all in, and what I'm seeing, I can't believe that it's possible!"

Ellie looked at him aghast. "Chuck, you must be imagining this! It has to be the shock of seeing Mama dead that's making you say these things!"

"I wish that that were so El, but it's true! Until I'm sure that I can control this thing inside me and it is safe to be around me, I need you to stay with Devon's family, we can say that you just don't feel safe staying here, where our parents were murdered, they shouldn't have any trouble believing that should they?"

Ellie shook her head, but said "No, they will believe that readily enough, but how do you know that father was killed, he's not here anywhere is he?"

Chuck shook his head sadly. "No, he's down in the workroom, that thing stuffed him in a cupboard in the workroom after he drained him, the memory of it is up here. " He tapped the side of his head.

Ellie collapsed into his arms in tears, but this he made sure that he didn't hurt her, keeping his touch light as he held her.

She obviously wanted to fight him on leaving, but they heard men running in the street, and she nodded her acceptance of his plea tightly when he begged. "El you HAVE to go, please?"

Chuck realised that he needed to find out about this man, so before the police could arrive, he quickly searched his body for, and removed, any keys and papers that he could find, including his wallet. He hastily stashed them behind the drawers in the cupboard before rejoining Ellie, just as they heard feet pounding up the back stairs.

Devon arrived at that moment and Chuck gently pushed Ellie into his arms, saying that he had to check on father, because the intruder had said something about dealing with him. He dashed out of the room, as he had to get his father out of that cupboard before the police arrived. He got his father and put him up against the wall, hidden from the door due to the bench beside it, just managing to close the cupboard door before the police ran into the yard.

Chuck and his father had been on good terms with the police, and Chuck knew the Captain from the war, but Devon's family, the Woodcombs, were rich and powerful, and that was why he'd wanted to get Devon back, so that he could be there to protect Ellie from all of this. As long as Ellie was under the Woodcombs' wing, no-one could touch her.

* * *

Given that Ellie had only come in after the fact, and she'd been in the company of the heir apparent of one of Boston's most prominent families while all this had been happening so she had the perfect alibi, it was relatively simple to get clearance for Devon to take her to his family's home after she'd packed a bag with enough things for a few days.

Dropping the name of Woodrow Woodcomb had the desired effect on the officer in charge, as he was a senator and one of the most powerful men in Boston, so the man was soon bending over backwards, trying to be seen to be being helpful by his son.

He asked Ellie a few perfunctory questions about what she'd seen, to which she truthfully responded that she'd only just arrived home with Devon to find her mother and an unknown man dead in the kitchen, and her brother unconscious.

She wasn't about to leave Chuck without attempting to provide some support, though, so she said that Charles still had weak spells from the terrible injuries he'd incurred in the war sometimes, and that was undoubtedly why he'd passed out.

This served to remind the man that his Police Captain knew and had some regard this young man, so it would be dangerous to play heavy handed with him, either. The officer took what she said down and thanked her, sending an officer to stand outside her room while she packed what she needed for an overnight stay, and then to escort her and Devon to the Woodcombs' house.

* * *

When the wagon from the morgue arrived, they had Chuck's parents and the other body taken away, then they escorted Chuck to the police station and questioned him for some time (it seemed like hours) about what had happened. He stayed as much as possible with the truth, saying that he'd been sent out to deliver a brace of pistols to a customer (giving them the name and address to allow them to confirm that he'd indeed done the delivery, and when he did so). When he came back the business was closed up, so he thought that his father must have gone out to meet a customer. He'd quickly checked around downstairs but when he couldn't see him he'd gone upstairs as it was getting close to dinner time.

When he'd entered the family apartment though, he'd immediately felt that something was wrong as he couldn't hear any noise from the kitchen, and that was most unusual, so he'd retrieved the cutlass that his father had kept in the umbrella stand in case of intruders and went to try and find his mother. When he'd reached the kitchen, he'd found his mother laying on the floor with a knife sticking out of her breast, and a man he didn't know standing over her, holding a bloody dish rag to his side. As soon as he saw him, the man had charged at him, and he must have raised the cutlass defensively because he had impaled himself on it, killing himself. He looked embarrassed as he said that he must have fainted after that, because the next thing he could remember was his sister trying to wake him up.

One of the officers in the room sniggered at that, but was skewered by a glare from the Captain and sent from the room. They didn't keep him long after that, as the Captain told him that his story was supported by everything that they'd found at the house, so he expressed his condolences for the loss of his parents and organised a couple of officers to escort him home when he was done, calling the one he'd sent from the room into his office as Chuck left with. "Johnson, in here, now!"

Chuck had an idea of how the discussion in the Captain's office would go, as he'd been attached to the Captain's command briefly in the war. The Captain had already started in on the man before they were out of earshot, which made the officers escorting Chuck smirk at each other. They had no sympathy for the fool, as everyone in the station had heard the Captain's war stories, and knew of the regard he held for this young man.

As hard as those stories had been to believe though, the new procedures had required that Chuck be examined by the police doctor before he left, and those scars they saw on his body had made believers out of them. They'd seen serious bullet wounds before, they'd been in the war too, but nothing that came close to the damage that had been inflicted on that young man, they couldn't understand how he'd survived that!

Between that, and seeing how the Captain had dealt with the officer who'd laughed at this one, the officers who escorted Chuck home respectfully expressed their condolences and wished him a good night. He thanked them for their kind words and locked up as soon as they left.

Once he'd ensured that he was alone, Chuck went into the workroom and lit the lamps before unlocking and opening the gun cabinet. They had a few pieces in there that he was supposed to be finishing for commission, but he ignored them for the now. Instead, he pulled out some of the pieces he'd been working on for himself.

* * *

Someone who'd been at Boston Tech with him was working in the testing area of the Springfield Armory now, and he'd gotten permission to send interesting items to Bartowski Guns to solicit their comment. These weapons he'd made for himself came, in part, out of what he'd been sent from the armory.

Two of the items which had caught his eye recently were the new .46 Centrefire pistol and rifle cartridges that Armory were working on. With the capacity for 40 grains of powder, the .46-40 was a more powerful and accurate pistol cartridge than had been generally available up until then, while the .46-80 was a greatly improved rifle round that was meant to supersede the current Government round. These rounds were only just becoming available now, and they had been a long way off when he'd first built these weapons. Another item of interest that had contributed to his design was an early prototype of the new Model 3 pistol frame from Smith and Wesson.

In his free time, Chuck had drawn up designs for a pistol based in part on the concepts of the Smith & Wesson Model 3 frame, but incorporating many of the ideas that had been rattling around in his head while he'd been thinking about improving the standard designs over the past six or seven years, such as a stronger locking mechanism, a cam profile on the cylinder movement that ensured a tight fit to the barrel (making it both more powerful and accurate, and eliminating gas leakage), a double action mechanism, a grip frame that sat in the hand more naturally, so that it pointed faster and more accurately and the like. A longer barrel than normal gave it more power and accuracy and (this was the biggest departure from normal revolvers) the barrel was aligned with the bottom of the cylinder, rather than the top, as this made for a stronger design that could also be fired more quickly and accurately. It was now re-chambered and converted to use the new .46 Centrefire cartridges, up to the .46-60, rather than the .46 Short, Long and Extra Long Rimfire cartridges it had originally been designed for (he designed it to have the same capacity as the Remington Cavalry revolvers). Like most of his engineering designs, these pistols had performed just as he planned them to, and these were the first things that he extracted from the gun safe, the four of these revolvers that he'd made.

After the pistols he pulled out a tray of cartridges, half a dozen 'quick loader' clips that he'd created that let him reload a revolver in mere seconds, and the holsters he had made for them. As an afterthought, he also retrieved a cylinder, as big around as the cylinder and as long as the barrel of the pistols, a smaller revolver and a brace of triple barrelled derringers, also of his design, which used the same principles and were also chambered for up to the .46-40 Centrefire.

With the pistols and necessary accoutrements sitting on top of the gun safe, he reached in to pull out another weapon. This was a carbine to his mind, though its 24" barrels would make it a rifle to many. He'd brought back some of the LeMat revolvers he'd claimed as spoils from the war in his gear, and the LeMat concept had intrigued him, even though the original design was rather seriously flawed. When he received the .46-80 Centrefire cartridges, he sat down and designed what he thought the LeMat _should_ have been using them, taking everything he'd used with his pistols and incorporating those ideas into this new improved Lemat concept, what he was now holding in his hand was the result of that.

The cylinder carried ten rounds of .46-80 or longer Centrefire, while the central shotgun barrel was 12 gauge. It could be shot from both the hip and the shoulder quite well, and it was probably one of the most powerful rifles available, as well as being more accurate than most. After he looked at the carbine for a minute or so though, he put it back into the gun safe. It was a powerful weapon to be sure, but if he faced anything tonight, it would be at close range, and the carbine would be of little use in that situation.

He'd been thinking about what he was to do all the while he'd been doing this, and he now quickly removed his jacket and pulled on the harness from which two holsters hung down his sides before putting the jacket on again (if something did come for him tonight, the surprise of the hidden weapons may well save him).

He quickly loaded one of the left and right pairs of pistols (the better they fit the hand, the better they shoot) and holstered them in the shoulder holsters, also loading the six quick loaders, smaller revolver and two derringers and dropping them into his jacket pockets, along with a handful of loose shells and that strange cylinder before filling the bullet loops on the holsters hanging at his sides and buttoning his jacket.

Then he loaded the other pair of pistols, slipping them into the holsters on the other gunbelt before he filled all the bullet loops on the gunbelt. Once he was done he put the cartridge tray away, locked up the gun safe and workroom and headed upstairs, hiding the gunbelt, along with most of the quick loaders and loose rounds and that cylinder in his room.

* * *

With the preparations done, he sat down to think about what had to be done. He wasn't dreaming up monsters, they were real, because one had been right here and killed his parents before he'd killed it. With that known fact, he had to consider whether there were any more who were likely to come, or whether they had others working for them that he may have to deal with.

He forced himself to go to the kitchen to get some bread and meat, as he realised the need to eat something to keep his strength up. Once he'd done that, he ensured that all the doors and windows were locked and retired to his room.

Supping in his room wasn't something that his mother would have ever allowed, but she was no longer here to berate him about it. When he'd eaten, he did what he'd been trying to avoid so far, he laid back and closed his eyes, letting the images in his head to wash over him.

What he was seeing couldn't be real, he was in a land with mountains made of sand all around, he and the men around him wore animal skins and carried crude spears as they trekked across the burning sands. Then he was standing in an enormous courtyard, surrounded by silent lines of what must have been thousands of Chinaman soldiers. Dressed in furs, he struggled through the snow trying to cross impossibly tall mountains, back among the mountains of sand, but this time wearing cloth garments and with metal weapons as he rode in a strange open cart, urging the black skinned warriors in front of him to run faster, riding across the plains in the middle of a mob of wild looking Chinamen in leather and furs, standing in a massive amphitheatre in a crowd of people cheering bloodthirstily at the men down below, who had strange helmets and bore sword and shield or strange spears and nets. Here was a later scene, he was on the deck of a galleon with cannons booming all about and the wood of his ship splintering as cannon balls struck her, then more savages in helmets, leather and furs were leaping out of a strange open boat as it rides up onto a rocky beach, waving axes and swords as they run towards a group of log huts.

Chuck's eyes flew open, he didn't know how long it had been but he was drenched in sweat and his heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest. He was all but certain that he must be losing his mind as what he was seeing couldn't be real, but he had to try to learn how to control this, or else put a bullet in brain, as if he couldn't control it, then Ellie and Papa could never be safe, so he closed his eyes again.

He was back in the mountains of sand yet again, but this time he was riding an impossible beast, much taller than a horse, with a small head out on the end of a long neck, he was in a battle where all were encased in armour, hacking away at each other with great swords or axes. Here he was crossing a great plain of grass, massive grey beasts that seemed as big as a house were waving ears like sails and trumpeting at him. He was in a city where all the streets were water, boats of all kinds jostling past each other, with the Chinamen again, but this time he's standing atop a massive wall, several storeys high and as wide as a house, which stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction, he was with a group of Spaniards dressed in strange helmets and breastplates shooting muskets at Indians in front of a strange triangular building. The next scene seemed quite recent, in a colossal building of glass, in England going by the accents around him, with engineering marvels on display all around, then he was running through the tall grass with a horde of black skinned warriors with spears and shields, and in the next it was in the old country, looking like hundreds of years ago as the mob surrounded a woman tied to a wooden pole with wood and brush piled up around her and a priest proclaiming that she was a witch.

Chuck opened his eyes again, getting up to wash the sweat from his face before standing in the dark in the front room, watching the mostly empty street outside for a while. When he was feeling calmer he went back to lay down and close his eyes again. This was the way it was the whole night, but after a while he realised that, while the images still seemed impossible, he was starting to sort out the order of them and they were starting to make sense, of a sort.

The Daemon's lives back through the ages were just one on-going journey, and a constant rampage of death. It had appeared quite content to spend lifetimes getting from one place to another, but the time that took hardly phased it, the memories seemed to go back to the cavemen that he'd heard about back at school. When the body it was in was injured, damaged or wore out, it'd just take over another one, as it had been planning to do to him when he'd pushed that cutlass through its heart.

Taking over another's body whenever it felt the need wasn't the worst of it though, worse was the umpteen multitudes that it had sucked the very life and soul (and memories) from, as there was generally no need for this, most of these deaths had been purely for its own enjoyment.

All of the Daemon's victims' memories were in Chuck's head now, but what frightened Chuck was the possibility that there may be something else inside of him as well, that part of the essence of the Daemon may also be hiding in his head like some sort of dark rider just waiting for its chance to take the reins. This was what made him draw a pistol and hold it in his hand several times, wondering whether he should just put it to his head and pull the trigger.

There was one thing which gave him hope though, the fact that this Daemon had been in America before, and something about the Indians had frightened it. Chuck hoped that this meant that some of the Indians might know how to get the potential dark rider out of his head. If this was a possibility, he must go west to try and find them!

Another thing that he saw when the Daemon's memories started to get sorted out was where the last host, the one he'd killed, had lived, and that he'd left things back there. With that information, as soon as it was light out, he got washed up then went through the things he'd taken from the body, wrote out authorities in the hand of the last host for him to collect his belongings and headed over to the lodging house where he'd lived. Of course, he had to pay the lodgings bill (the man's well filled wallet covering that without a problem but he made sure that he didn't overpay to avoid attracting her interest), but after that the landlady was quite happy to organise people to help him clear the rooms out.

Chuck put her off, saying that he must first finish packing everything up properly before it could be removed, so she all but pushed him up the stairs, eager to have the man's things out so she could let the rooms again. Most of the trunks held old maps, manuscripts, scrolls and ledgers. The amazing thing about this was that as that Chuck looked at them, he found that he could read any of them quite easily, no matter what outlandish language they were written in!

Other trunks held outlandish weapons and scientific and musical instruments, and some (few) held rich garments, but one, that one left Chuck speechless, as it was quite filled with gold, jewels, and large amounts of paper money from all over the world. That trunk would have been quite sufficient to make him the richest man in Boston, and probably a whole lot more than that as well.

Chuck packed everything up, just as he said he would, and locked all the trunks securely before he called for the woman to get the men in to carry the trunks down. Once he'd had everything lugged downstairs and piled up out front (himself making it look like light work to carry that treasure chest down) and given his helpers gratuities that were enough to make them grateful but not enough to make them wonder at how much money he had, he paid one of the street urchins run off to fetch Mick McCready, the Irish carter whom he'd often rented a steam dray off (as their finances and business weren't good enough to justify keeping one of their own, even though he and his father could surely have built one themselves).

Mick asked questions, to be sure, but this was more just for the chance to talk than anything, and he readily accepted Chuck's story that a friend had had to leave town in a hurry and so had asked Chuck to collect his things and store them safely for him. With the trunks safely stowed at their house, as soon as he felt that he had things relatively under control inside of him, Chuck went to the Woodcombs' to ask Ellie to come home so that they could begin to make the funeral arrangements for their parents, and also so that they could talk privately.

As he spent more time on the streets, he came to realise that he could not only read (and presumably write) just about every language, he could understand the spoken form of just about all languages as well. When he'd come to Boston, he'd spoken far more languages than most locals, with English, Hungarian, French, Spanish and Dutch, and a bit of Italian and German as well, but there had yet been umpteen others which were a mystery to him. NOW, however, he understood every word that was spoken, so long as it was a real language and not the ravings of a lunatic, such as the one who had at first had him convinced that there was a hole in this incredible font of knowledge in his head.

He was finding it amusing to listen in on people plotting and scheming while they were feeling secure that no-one else could understand what they were saying. Not to mention what he recalled when he saw people or places that he had acquired memories of, some of these memories were horrific and disgusting, but by and large, most were cause for amusement.

* * *

His amusement disappeared once he'd arrived at the Woodcombs' residence however, because the moment he saw Woody Woodcomb, he was inundated with images of his nefarious deeds, from rape, to beatings, to financial crimes and conspiracies against President Grant's government.

Ellie could see that something was effecting her brother, so she quickly thanked the Woodcombs for their hospitality and made her goodbyes, anxious to get Chuck out of there. As they left and headed down the street, Chuck was trying to stop Ellie asking him questions when a blonde vision across the street caught his eye. She was trying to be inconspicuous, but with a beauty like her's, that was quite impossible, well it was for one who had the newly enhanced perceptions that Chuck had now, anyway.

What was possibly even more intriguing, though, was that the memories that came to the fore told him that this vision of loveliness was actually a government agent, and she'd been involved in a number of investigations and arrests of members of this fake Culper Ring that Woody was part of, which was working to undermine the north to allow the south to gain supremacy.

Of course, the current 'Culper Ring' had absolutely nothing to do with the original one. They'd merely usurped the name in an attempt to give their nefarious deeds a veneer of legitimacy. Not that Chuck was interested in this fake Culper Ring at all, his interest was in the blonde vision in front of him, and how he could help her bring Woody Woodcomb down.

At that moment, their eyes met, and something popped in both of them, they were transfixed. The girl smiled at him and he smiled back, then she suddenly remembered who and where she was, which prompted her to turn bright red and run off.

Ellie was smiling at Chuck as well, but she obviously felt no inclination to run off. "And who was that Chuck?"

Chuck was gazing after the girl with a distracted smile on his face. When he realised that Ellie had asked him a question, he replayed it in his head and shook his head "I'm not sure what her name is El, but I do know that she's a government agent, and I presume that she's here to put together a case to have your prospective father-in-law charged with treason."

At that Ellie propped and began to shriek "WHAT?", but Chuck put a finger to her lips and shushed her, taking her arm again and hurrying her home.

When they were home, and safely locked inside, he sat her down and explained to her about the memories that he'd acquired from the Old One, and told her what those memories had told him about Woodcomb Senior and the people that he was associated with. Just after he started talking, though, he stopped to set up pen, paper and inkwell in front of him.

Once he had what he needed, he quickly jotted down what he'd already told Ellie, and when he'd caught up with his narrative, he continued with his revelations, also jotting them down on the paper as he did so. When he'd finished, Chuck gave a cheeky grin, adding a final note.

'If, perchance, this information is to go to President Grant, it would be greatly appreciated if you would pass on Charles Bartowski's best wishes to him, and advise him that he did indeed acquire his engineering degree.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Kind regards,

Charles Barton'

General Grant had made the effort to personally visit and talk to him several times in the hospital at City Point after he'd regained consciousness, and he'd actually been quite a comfort to Chuck with his kindness.

Ellie started crying after that, because if Devon's father were to be charged with treason, his family's money would most likely be seized. If that were to happen, there was no way that she and Devon would be able to afford to get married and start a doctors' practice together as they had planned.

Chuck held her hands and told her not to worry, they had enough money to ensure that she could have those things.

Ellie shook her head, still crying "No Chuck, you have no idea how much it costs to set up a proper doctors' practice, we may be able to afford a simple wedding, but the practice, there's no way that we could afford that!"

Chuck smiled at that, saying "I don't think that that will be a problem Ellie, come with me."

He led her into his room and pulled a chest out of its hiding place, setting it on his bed before unlocking it and opening it. Ellie Bartowski wasn't a woman prone to fainting spells, but when she saw what was in that chest, she almost fainted then and there on the spot. The chest was filled to the brim with gold coins from across the ages, jewels the size of eggs (and smaller), and bundles of paper money. The contents of this chest would easily make them far richer than the Woodcombs, and this was just what had been left there, he hadn't taken the time to go through the other trunks to see what else was in them.

He smiled at Ellie. "So you see, if you still want to marry Devon, you can certainly afford to, and you should live here and open your doctors' rooms downstairs."

"Chuck, no, this is your home, and you'll be wanting to carry on the business, won't you?"

"Well I would like to keep my room here, and yes, I will keep Bartowski Engineering going, but I can give up the front rooms, and I need to go away for a while."

"What? Where are you going, and why?"

Chuck drew a breath. "Ellie, I'm not certain that there isn't something of the Old One in my head, and that frightens me. When I was going though the incredible, impossible memories that I got from him, one thing that seemed to worry the Old One was the Indians, I think that it is possible that they may know of a way to drive it out. So, once we've buried mother and father and you are set, I aim to head out west, to try and find someone who can help me make sure that the Old One isn't in my head."

He was conflicted about bringing up the next item, but he thought he must. "Ellie, I know that you plan to build your life with Devon, but I need for us to keep everything about the Old One, and this chest, just to us, can you agree to that?"

Ellie looked at him for almost a minute, and then nodded. "Yes Chuck, I can agree to that."

With that, they agreed on a story that their father had left a little money to them, enough to pay for the wedding, set up the doctor's practice and cover their expenses for a while. They also agreed on a story for Chuck to tell Devon, that he had to go away for a while to deal with a promise that he'd made to his father, but he'd like to see Ellie safely wed to her man before he did so, so that he'd know that she was being looked after.

* * *

That afternoon, they went to the funeral parlour to arrange for their parents' funeral, but when Ellie went to the Woodcombs' to advise them when and where the funeral would be, Chuck held back as Ellie went to the house, instead selecting a small boy for the task he had in mind and pointing the blonde woman out to the boy, Chuck paid him a nickel to deliver the envelope to the pretty lady.

When she got the envelope, she immediately started scanning the street to determine who'd sent it, but couldn't see anyone who was behaving suspiciously or stood out in any way (for that was another skill that Chuck found he had acquired from the memories in his head, the ability to all but disappear when he needed to).

As she didn't spot anyone, she knelt down to ask the little boy who'd sent the envelope. He looked at where Chuck had been, but when he couldn't see him either his face crumpled as though he was about to cry. Sarah hugged him and told him that it wasn't his fault, smoothing his hair and sending him on his way.

With that, the woman retired to her lodgings to open the envelope and read the letter. When she'd read through it though, she just sat there, more than a little shocked. If this was true, she had to do something about it, and in a hurry, but she had no way of confirming any of it, bar one, that postscript. As she actually knew the President (or Uncle Sam as she normally called him) quite well, she sent him an urgent message asking who this Charles Barton was, and was he to be trusted?

The short answer of the response she received was 'Yes!', but it wasn't a short answer, he went into a fair amount of detail about Charles Barton, or more to the point Charles Bartowski, including the fact that his parents had been murdered very recently and when he'd found their killer standing over his mother's body, he'd killed him (President Grant had been keeping track of Chuck, and indeed the whole Bartowski family, and he'd been sent the reports of his parents' death by the Police Captain).

She was angry to find that she had tears in her eyes as she read this, because Sarah Walker did _not_ cry! She'd hardly done so since she was a little girl! She was also confused about how relieved she was to discover that the woman she'd seen him with near the Woodcombs' was in fact his sister (as Uncle Sam had included a good enough description of this Charles Bartowski and his sister to be confident that the man and woman she'd seen the previous day was them).

Sarah (for that was the woman's name, Sarah Walker) set up watch on the Bartowski house and business, but it was difficult, as he didn't open the business out front, he just worked out the back, and left the building but rarely, apparently to make deliveries, going by the look of the parcels she saw him carrying when he did leave.

One time that he left to make a delivery, she slipped inside to look around the place, in hope that she may discover something of use. Instead, she found herself caught up in this man's life, she saw his new sheepskin on the wall beside his sister's and now dead father's, she also saw a number of family pictures on the walls, the most recent with him and his sister in cap and gown from their graduations, an older one must have been from just after he returned after the war, as he looked drawn and his father looked angry.

When she finally managed to pull herself away from looking at him and his life, she found things that were quite bizarre, trunks full of outlandish weapons, and even more trunks full of books, ledgers, maps and the like in a multitude of languages, far more than she recognised and she was considered a prodigal in languages by people who aught to be an authority on the matter. There was something not right about this man she found herself drawn to so strongly, and who the President apparently held in such high regard.

Sarah found the notice for their parents funeral for the following day, and determined that this would be the best opportunity for her to approach him. It was only then that she realised just how long she'd spent poking about the family's apartment, trying to find out everything she could about this man, and she hurriedly set everything back the way it had been before she had arrived and left, locking the doors behind her.

* * *

There was a good turnout for the funeral, so it seemed that the Bartowskis had been well regarded. Sarah was taken aback when she saw the Woodcombs there, but when she saw how attentive the eldest son, Devon, was to Eleanor Bartowski, Charles' sister, she realised why the Bartowskis had been near the Woodcomb house, she must have been there to see him.

When the opportunity presented itself, Sarah went to express her condolences to the Bartowskis, and stepping close to Chuck, she added, too quietly for anyone else to hear, "President Grant also wishes to offer his condolences, and congratulate you on gaining your degree.".

While she was close, Chuck responded quietly "Thank you….?"

"Sarah, Sarah Walker" (She was immediately aghast at herself for offering up her real name, rather than the one she was using there, she had no idea why she had done that.)

"Thank you Miss Walker, I believe that we may have more to discuss on what was in the letter if you are so inclined?"

"Yes, I would like to..."

At that moment, Ellie cut her off with a hissed "Woody's coming!" and a quick look out of the corner of her eye confirmed that Woodrow Woodcomb was indeed heading towards them, or more to the point, her!

In the time that she'd been watching the Woodcomb residence, she'd seen a steady stream of flossies and doxies coming and going, mostly on the arm of Woodcomb Senior, so it was little surprise to find that the letch would consider it acceptable to approach a woman who caught his eye at a funeral.

Sarah could almost feel his eyes sliding over her like slimy fingers, and she had to suppress a shudder, so she promised herself a bath that night, as she felt quite unclean after enduring it. As soon as Woodcomb reached her, he grabbed her hand and asked "And who is this lovely lady?"

His eyes didn't rise from her bosom as he spoke, which was fortunate as it meant that he missed Sarah's look of surprise at Chuck and his look of apology in return as he answered Woodcomb.

"This is Miss Walker, my intended, Mr Woodcomb."

"Sarah, this is Mr Woodcomb, I'm sure that Uncle Sam has mentioned that his son Devon has been courting our Ellie for some time now?"

The shock of Chuck announcing her as his intended was worth it, as it made Woodcomb release her hand and stop staring at her bosom. What worried her rather more, though, was the warm feeling that rose up inside of her and the images that had come to her mind upon hearing those words.

Sarah regained her composure enough to say "Oh yes! We have all been waiting to hear the date for the wedding."

A glance at Ellie showed the mirth dancing in her eyes, and Sarah had to fight down the blush threatening to blossom over her face, and more!

Recognising that there would be little point in him pursuing a dalliance with her, Woodcomb offered perfunctory pleasantries and left as soon as he was able, hoping to find other pickings in the group assembled here.

As soon as he'd left, Chuck reached for Sarah's hand and drew her close to whisper "I must apologise Miss Walker, that was all I could think of to ward him off, the man is a notorious womaniser who shamelessly pursues any attractive lady who catches his eye..."

She cut him off by embracing him, using this opportunity to whisper in his ear "That's quite all right Charles, I certainly appreciated you rescuing me from his clutches, but don't you think you should be calling me Sarah? After all, we ARE intended, are we not?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him blushing, and was glad to see that she wasn't the only one afflicted with the condition, but she got back to business. "Actually, this is fortuitous, as it would be rather less suspicious, not to mention damaging to my reputation, for me to be seen visiting you as an unattended woman if it gets about that I am your intended. I hope that that would not be too much of an imposition to you to continue the ruse?"

She was rewarded by seeing another blush as he murmured "Not at all" and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she released him.

As she stepped back, she was surprised to be pulled into an embrace by Ellie, and even more surprised by what she whispered in her ear "I'm onto you girl, he may be oblivious because he doesn't know much about women, but I do, and I can see that you're as smitten with him as he is with you!"

Sarah pulled her head back to look at Ellie in shock, and when she tentatively matched her nod, Ellie smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek before she released her.

Sarah remained at Chuck's side as people came up to offer their condolences, and as they followed the hearse to the graveyard for the burial as well, only separating after they'd left the graveyard.

Most people smiled and greeted at her when she was introduced as his intended, and more than a few made comments about her being better than that other one, which was something that she thought she'd have to look into.


	3. Revelations and Agreements

**I was caught out, trying to juggle Chuck and Sarah's ages with the changes to the story, so I've updated the opening chapter to say that Chuck was eleven when he ran away from home. Headstrong boy he was.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Sarah came to the Bartowskis' the next day, ringing the bell at the door of the front rooms. She had to wait a few minutes before Chuck arrived, in his shirt sleeves, to open the door for her, but when he offered his hand to her, she smiled mischievously and moved in to embrace him, kissing him on the cheek and whispering in his ear "Charles, have you forgotten that we are intended? We must show more affection than that if we are to be believed!"

She forgot her own gibe a moment later as she was drawn into his embrace and his lips met her's.

So lost in the moment was she that she hardly registered when he broke the kiss and then gently took her hand to draw her inside when she didn't move. Sarah only truly came to herself when she spied Ellie standing in the doorway to the back rooms with a satisfied smile on her face, and she blushed at that, to realise that she'd totally lost herself in what was nothing more than a brief, chaste kiss from this man.

Ellie came forward and reached out to take Sarah's hand, saying "Why don't you come up to the parlour, where we can talk" as she led her from the room. Chuck locked the front doors before he followed them.

When Chuck got upstairs, he saw Ellie standing at the doorway to the kitchen, trying to make herself go in, he touched her shoulder and she turned to bury her face in his chest, saying "I'm sorry, I came to make a pot of coffee, but when I got here all I could think of was that creature.."

Chuck shushed her and kissed her on the head, sending her back to the parlour while he made the coffee. Ellie looked so shaken when she returned that Sarah asked "Eleanor, is anything wrong?"

Ellie shook her head, "No, it is only that our mother was killed in the kitchen by that creature, so it is hard for me to go in there. Chuck is making the coffee and will be in shortly."

She paused to look at Sarah. "That is another thing, if you wish to convince people that you are indeed Chuck's intended, you must begin calling him Chuck, and me Ellie, no-one who is at all familiar with us would ever use our formal names."

Sarah nodded "I will endeavour to remember that, thank you Ellie, but why do you refer to the killer as a creature?"

At that moment, Chuck appeared in the doorway. One of the memories in his head had Sarah speaking in Polish, and the accent that she had used indicated that she had learned to speak it from someone who'd lived in the old country, so he addressed her in Polish. " _Do you remember the stories of the Old Ones?"_ ose

She looked at him, answering in the same language without realising it.

 _"Of course, but they were but stories made up to scare children."_

" _I thought so as well, until one came here to kill our parents."_

" _That is not possible!"_

" _And yet, I am speaking to you in the language of the old country and know that your family came from the Sandomierz Valley?"_

Sarah's blood ran cold when she realised that they WERE, in fact, speaking in Polish, and that he somehow knew the origins of her mother's family. She changed back to English and asked. "How could you know that?"

He changed back to English as well. "The memories that I acquired from the creature placed the traces of the accent you were using when you spoke Polish on the docks of New York."

Sarah whipped her revolver out of her muff and aimed it at him. "What were you doing there? What group are you part of?"

Chuck looked at her, calm in the face of imminent death. "I wasn't, another who was taken by the creature was though and it is his memories that I am recalling."

Ellie looked at him, confused, until all of a sudden she realised what he was trying to do. He was trying to goad Sarah into killing him, in an attempt to ensure that, if there was indeed any trace of the Old One left inside of him, she would be protected from it.

"Chuck, no! There's no sign that it's inside of you! You're still my little brother, who I love!"

She turned to face Sarah. "Sarah, please lower your pistol, he has fears that part of that creature is inside of him, and that it may make him hurt me like it has our parents and others. He is trying to coerce you into eliminating that threat to me."

She turned back to Chuck. "You cannot do this to her, she has feelings for you that match your own for her, if you made her kill you, it will harm her greatly."

Chuck turned to stare doubtfully at Ellie, unable to accept what she was saying until Sarah's hand dropped to her side, her pistol dropping to the floor as her grip slackened when she spoke, in a broken voice. "You were trying to make me kill you? How could you do that to me?"

At that, Chuck crossed the room to kneel in front of her, taking her hands. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea, I couldn't dream that someone such as you could care for, well, me. I wasn't really trying to make you, it was more, at the back of my head there was the thought that it would be easier, and better for everyone, if you did, because I couldn't get past the notion that suicide is a sin, Mama made us pay attention to the scriptures."

Sarah pulled her hands from his and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck as she began to cry, fit to break.

When she realised that the pot of coffee must be ready by now on the stove in the kitchen, Ellie stood, resolute, and strode off to the kitchen to collect it. When she returned with the pot and cups, Chuck and Sarah were still in the same position as when she'd left.

Chuck looked up as she put the tray on the table, but flinched at the accusing look she shot his way. He was more intelligent than just about anyone they knew, and he could hardly ignore the fact that the two women, two people, who currently meant the most to him in the whole wide world were both furious with him for what he had just tried to do.

Eventually, Sarah's sobbing abated and she loosened her grip on Chuck's neck, sitting back and accepting the cup that Ellie held out to her. Neither she nor Chuck missed the fact that Ellie didn't offer a cup to Chuck, he had to pour his own, but when he went to move away to sit in one of the chairs, Sarah grabbed at his arm, so he settled at her feet again.

Ellie looked at them sternly and said "Pistols, both of you, I want them over here to prevent any more foolishness!" as she pointed to the chair beside her.

Sarah went to bend down to collect her's from the floor, but Chuck gently met her hand to stop her and picked it up for her, dropping it onto the chair beside Ellie before pulling out the .46 revolver he had stuffed into back of the waistband of his trousers and setting it with Sarah's revolver.

At Ellie's continuing look, he extracted another, rather more slender, revolver and a brace of derringers from his pockets and dropped them on the chair as well. That prompted Sarah to fish another brace of derringers from her bodice and toss them after his.

Ellie looked at the chair beside her and then back to the pair across from her, and they both nodded to say that all of their pistols were now on the chair.

When she was confident that the firearms at least were out of harm's way now (she wasn't about to embarrass Sarah by asking her to expose where she may be hiding however many knives she might have about her person at this moment, and she was prepared to accept that Chuck wouldn't attempt to kill himself with a blade), she addressed Sarah.

"Sarah, can you accept that Chuck has the memories of an Old One in his head, or does he have a need to provide you with further proof at this time?"

Sarah's expression showed that she was struggling to accept what she had been told, but she nodded. "As hard as it is to believe, I think that I can accept what he has told me as proof enough."

Ellie nodded. "Then how are we to proceed from here? Are you able to continue with the pretence of being my brother's intended, or must we have someone else to work with Chuck?"

She felt guilty when she saw the look of pain that crossed over Sophie's face at the word 'pretence', but at the same time she was warmed by it, and this prompted her to blurt out.

"Or should we instead take your betrothal to be real?"

That shocked Sarah, but she stammered. "What? No, uh, continuing to act as betrothed is the best path for the now, it will make it easier when I visit or we're seen together."

The guilt on her face as she said that made Ellie rebuke her "Enough! You've already shown your feelings, both of you! If you cannot both admit what is in your hearts, we will have more trouble such as we just avoided. Do you truly care for for my brother? Yes or no?"

Sarah's hesitant response was soft but heartfelt "Yes."

"Chuck, do you truly care for Sarah?" When she saw him considering a response she pointed her finger at him, saying. "No! The straight truth!"

He looked at Sarah and then said "Yes" with feeling.

"I ask again, now that you have both admitted the truth, should we put aside the pretence of a pretence and take your betrothal as being real?"

Sarah and Chuck looked at each other for over a minute and then Sarah said "Yes?"

Ellie looked at her, asking "Yes?", at which Sarah nodded and repeated more confidently "Yes!"

That drew a smile from Ellie, but her expression went dour as she turned to Chuck "Will you accept this as something true and good and reject this horrid notion that you had? Will you return to the plan that we had previously agreed to?"

Chuck winced at that, but said "Yes".

Sarah looked from one sibling to the other as she asked "What is this plan that you are referring to?"

Ellie realised that she may have spoken out of turn, but she looked at Chuck, and he nodded, turning to Sarah.

"One of the Old One's memories that I have recalled is that he was afraid of something to do with the Indians, and I believe that he was afraid that they have a way of driving him out. Therefore, my plan was, once Ellie is safely married to Devon and therefore has someone to protect her, to go West and try to find the Indians who can help me ensure that no part of the Old One is left inside me."

"And what of me, if we are to be betrothed?"

"I will come back to you, once I am sure I am clean of this, so that we may build a life together."

"No! If we are betrothed, I will go with you to ensure that you return!"

"It is too dangerous Sarah, I promise that I will return!"

"Yes, you will, because I will make sure of it!"

They were interrupted by a snort from Ellie, when they looked at her she said "Listen to your betrothed, Chuck, for she is right and you would do well to accept that."

Sarah shared a smile with Ellie and then turned her gaze back on Chuck.

He met her gaze for half a minute and then nodded, saying "As you will."

That drew a smile from Sarah and she embraced him, kissing his cheek.

With these trials behind them, Ellie brought them back to what Sarah was supposedly there for.

"Well, now that that's settled, it would behove us to address the matter that Agent Walker came for, the information that Chuck has discovered on Father Woodcomb and his associates."

* * *

Sarah was taken aback that Ellie had to remind her of her duty, but she nodded and turned to Chuck. Chuck started to talk, but stopped himself, saying that this would be better done down in the workroom where they could use the drawing board to map out the structure of this Culper Ring and who they were connected to.

That drew a nod from Sarah, and she stood, moving to the chair where they had tossed their firearms. She tucked her derringers back into her bodice, and her revolver back into her muff, but when she picked up one of Chuck's revolvers to pass to him, she stopped, turning it over in her hand and testing the balance and sit, then testing the aim from the various handling positions, as it felt more natural in the hand than any other pistol she'd ever handled.

When she tried to determine the brand of the guns, she saw the 'B' that she knew from a couple of Uncle Sam's favourite rifles and suddenly realising what she was looking at, she looked at Chuck and blurted out " _You're_ the Bartowski Gunsmith?"

He looked confused, saying "Well yes, but why was that a surprise?"

She shook her head, saying "Sorry, I just didn't put it together before this, but what are these pistols based on? I've never held anything like them before? Or seen anything of the like for that matter."

Chuck looked embarrassed, so Ellie answered for him "That is because these are Chuck's own design, and no-one else has ever seen them before."

Sarah looked at her, and then back to Chuck, confused. "But you are engineers, at least that is what it says on the sign downstairs."

Chuck nodded. "I know, I was pondering that very thing as I returned on the day that the creature killed our parents. The thing is, engineering jobs can be hard to come by for a small business like our's, and I had some experience of converting and modifying pistols and long arms in the war. For that reason, I've been taking commissions to remake guns to make them work better, improve their handling, accuracy and the like. It has been keeping the wolf from the door for the family for some time."

He cast a look of sorry at his father's picture on the wall.

"While I was a student, we told out customers that it was my father's work, but I was the one who was doing the gunsmithing as he hated guns. I have a friend who sends me things from time to time from the Springfield Armory, and I got ideas from some of things that he sent me, so I made up these the way I thought that they should be made."

"It feels much better than any gun I've handled before, would it be possible to try it out?"

He nodded, "I have a spot outside of town where I go to test the guns, I could take you there if you would like to truly test them?"

Sarah nodded at that with a smile, and then Ellie cut in again. "Why don't you show her your other guns? I believe that your betrothed may be the type of woman who would appreciate them."

Sarah quirked an eyebrow at Chuck. " _Other_ guns?"

Chuck started to say something, but looked embarrassed, so he just said "It would be easier to show you than to try and explain them." Sarah nodded at that, looking intrigued.

She watched as he tucked the derringers and smaller revolver into his pockets, then shrugged into a harness from which hung a pair of holsters, holstering the big revolver and pulling on a jacket before he waved her out the door before him.

It was chilly in the workroom, but Chuck lit the lamps and got the wood heater started, then turned to her and asked "Would you like to see the guns before or after we begin what we are here for?"

"Before may be better, hopefully it may give the room sufficient time to warm up."

Chuck nodded and moved across to the gun cabinet to unlock and open it. First, he pulled out two different revolvers and a derringer, then the carbine he'd looked at the night his parents were killed, and another simpler, lighter carbine as well.

Sarah tried the lighter carbine first, seeing that it was essentially a carbine version of the sixgun she had handled upstairs with a 24" barrel. Chuck explained that he'd made it for Ellie, as she was intimidated by the 46 revolver as a handgun, and this was a lot more powerful than the little five shot 38 version of his revolvers he'd originally made for her (the smaller revolver he'd had in his pocket), or the 46 handguns for that matter.

He demonstrated how it handled from both the hip and the shoulder, just like 'his' carbine, and then she picked up 'his' carbine, and as Ellie had said, she could appreciate what a magnificent weapon this was!

When she broke it open to look at the ten round cylinder and shotgun barrel in the middle, she noted that the cylinder seemed noticeably longer than the sixgun's, which made her quirk an eyebrow at him.

At that he took the carbine off her, closing it up and placing it back on the bench before reaching into the gun cabinet to retrieve one of each of two cartridges and handing them to her.

When she had examined the cartridges, their silent communications were over. "What are these? I haven't seen rounds like this before?"

"They are being evaluated for the new standard government rounds, the forty six pistol and rifle centrefire rounds."

"How did you get to have this ammunition while the government is still testing it?"

Chuck shrugged. "As I said, I have a friend at the armoury who sends me things to have a look at from time to time, if I discover anything in regard to what he sends me that I deem important, I advise them of what I have discovered."

"And have you deemed anything important about these?" (Waving the two rounds).

"Only that they're more powerful and accurate than any other standard rounds I've tried, that's why I have been making my new guns for them."

"All of them?"

"Well, the smaller revolvers are now using new thirty eight centrefire shells that I'm loading to be the equivalent of the thirty eight short, long and extra long rimfire, and I'm loading variants of the forty six centrefire pistol shells to the equivalent of the forty six short, long and extra long rimfire, and different versions of the new forty six centrefire rifle round as well."

Turning back to him, she said. "So you have created a set of superior weapons that use these new cartridges and other custom cartridges, who else knows about them?"

"Now? Just Ellie, and you. My mother and father knew, of course, but they're gone now."

"So these are not for sale, they are just for you?"

"Yes, they were more of an engineering exercise than anything else, like my holsters." He smiled before adding. "Which you might appreciate as well."

She waved at the holsters hanging from the harness he had donned before shrugging into his jacket upstairs. "How well do they work? I am only used to gun belts."

He let her go as he said "The shoulder holsters work well enough, but I was actually meaning the gun belt."

He extracted the gun belt with the double open cavalry holsters from the gun cabinet and handed it to her. Sarah looked it over and tried it on, but it was too big to cinch around her waist properly, so he took it back and quickly added a few more holes with a leather punch before handing it back to her.

Now that it fit around her waist better, he drew the sixguns from the shoulder holsters and handed them to her, butt first. She seated the pair of guns in the holsters as she turned away and practised going through the motions to draw and fire a number of times with each pistol and nodded, oh yes, she wanted one of these. When she was done she reversed the revolvers to hand them back to him butt first as she turned back with raised eyebrows. "Yes Chuck, I would definitely be interested in these holsters, and those as well." (Gesturing to the shoulder holsters.)

He nodded with a smile.

As she was taking off the gun belt, Sarah asked what the pouches were for? Chuck said "They're for the quick loaders."

"The what?"

"Sorry, another idea of mine." He reached into the gun cabinet and grabbed two different quick loaders and a tray of shells, quickly filling both. Then, he picked up the sixgun loader and drew one of the sixguns from its holster, keying the release to break it open and dump the shells onto the bench with the flick of his wrist, quickly pushing the new rounds into the cylinder and releasing them with the other hand before flicking the pistol closed again.

Sarah looked shocked. "Well, that is certainly quick loading all right!" His actions had almost been too fast for the eye to follow, and now the pistol was recharged for another six shots. "The carbines are the same?"

Chuck nodded. "Much the same, yes."

He picked up his carbine in one hand and its loader in the other, keying the release with the usual flick of the wrist, pushing the cartridges in, releasing them and flicking the carbine closed. It wasn't quite as quick as the pistol, but not much different.

Sarah was still a little wide eyed as she said, "That is obviously a thing that requires practice."

Chuck nodded as he emptied the shells out of the carbine and revolver with a practised flick of the wrist and close them up before putting everything on the bench away in the gun cabinet, scooping up the shells and quick loaders and putting them away as well before he locked up the gun cabinet and moved across the room to put a fresh sheet of paper on the drawing board.

By now the room had warmed up enough for them to take their jackets off, and Chuck shrugged out of the shoulder holster as well and put it down. Out of interest, Sarah tried it on, and nodded, a properly sized one of those would do her handsomely.

As she put it down, her look was a little wheedling as she said "You know, if I'm coming with you on this trip out west, I would be a lot safer if I had these guns of your's, and maybe these holsters as well, would I not? But what is this thing?" She poked at the cylinder which was being carried in a pouch that was part of one of the shoulder holsters.

Chuck said "It's the hider, it's something to make firing the guns less obvious."

She looked confused, so he extracted the cylinder from its pouch, drew the smaller revolver from his pocket and screwed the cylinder onto the end of the barrel. Taking aim at the target with a bullet trap behind it at the other end of the workroom, he fired, and the bullet striking the wooden panels of the target made almost as much noise as the pistol firing did. Sarah noted that the there was also a lot less gunsmoke than normal as he fired.

Given her occupation of government agent and spy, this was something that most certainly interested Sarah, so he had to spend the next fifteen minutes or so explaining the principles of what he'd built, and promise to build one for her (along with her own set of guns and holsters, of course).

He grinned at that, as he knew full well that he was being played, but didn't mind at all, just saying "As you wish" and she grinned back at him as she got the connection with how he'd given in to her upstairs. She stretched up on tip toe to kiss his lips and say. "Thank you"

After that they went back to the job at hand, and for the next few hours, as Chuck sketched out the connections that he'd recalled in regard to the organisation that Woodcomb Senior was part of, Sarah told him what she'd discovered in her investigations, which in turn prompted more recollections and additional details and connections.

The sheets of paper were quickly filled with the structure and connections of the organisation, and they'd filled four sheets and were halfway through the fifth when Ellie called down to get them to come up for lunch (which in turn delayed them as Chuck had to how explain the telefono allowed them to talk over telegraph wires).

* * *

Over lunch, they discussed the other plans that they'd touched on earlier. Ellie raised a problem with Chuck's plans to say that he'd made a promise to their father to explain away why he had to go, given that Sarah would now be going with him.

Sarah tried to hide her smile at that, as Chuck scowled a little. He still wasn't happy with the idea of her accompanying him on his dangerous journey, but he had had enough experience with his mother and Ellie to understand that resistance was futile when a strong woman has made up her mind.

Sarah actually suggested a viable alternative to Chuck's plan. "Why don't we make it about me? We can say that my family is struggling, and Chuck is coming with me to help us implement what we need to make our plantation viable again."

Chuck nodded. "That could work, now that we are betrothed, as it would be more acceptable for us to be travelling together, un-chaperoned, and it would also help explain my commitment to help your family to others."

Ellie looked thoughtful at that, and then turned and left the room without a word. When she returned, she placed something in the palm of Chuck's hand. When he looked down, it was their mother's engagement ring. He looked back up at her. "Ellie.."

She cut him off. "No arguments Chuck, Sarah will need to be wearing an engagement ring to convince the Woodcombs, and others when you are travelling as well. You have both agreed that this is real, so she must have a ring."

He looked at Sarah, and she smiled tentatively, so he reached for her hand and she extended it to him, allowing him to slip the ring onto her finger. When he slipped the ring onto her finger, it was a perfect fit, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him.

Ellie gave a laugh as she pulled her into an embrace, saying "Welcome to the family!" in her ear.

With Chuck and Sarah now engaged, they had to address the issue of pushing Devon to move quickly to marry Ellie, so that Chuck and Sarah would be free to hunt for the answer to Chuck's fears that some remnants of the Old One residing within him.

Sarah built on the original story. "Well we can't leave you here on your own Ellie, so you'll have to come with us, unless Devon marries you."

One thing that helped this story along was that Sarah had slipped back into her native Creole accent, which identified her as being southern, at the funeral, because just as Chuck had unsettled her at first sight, his effect on her seemed to only keep getting stronger every time she saw him. This was why she'd clean forgotten the persona and accent, and even the name she was supposed to be using when she saw him in the church.

This helped to lay down the foundations of the story that Chuck had met her family in the war and they, like many others, had fallen on hard times when they couldn't keep up with the changes around them. They embellished the tale with details such as her father being ill and her, as the eldest of four daughters, coming north to seek the aid of the young gentleman who'd won her heart at first sight.

Sarah asked Ellie "Do you think that this could work for you Ellie?"

Ellie smiled and said "Yes, I do think so, thank you!" as she hugged her.

* * *

With that agreed, Chuck and Sarah went back down to the workroom. By the time they were done, they'd filled over twenty sheets with the information and structures of the so-called Culper Ring, and Sarah knew that she needed to get this back to Uncle Sam as soon as possible.

She had Chuck lock the sheets away in the gun safe while she ran to the telegraph office to send Uncle Sam a telegram before it closed. She induced the man there to stay and let her wait for a response, and it came back in about twenty minutes. She was to remain there, guarding the materials, until an army unit arrived to collect them and take them to Washington.

She was assured that the officer commanding the unit would be known to her or Colonel Barton, if not both. That confused her, so she rushed back a response of 'Who is Colonel Barton?' in clear because she was in a hurry, getting a simple response back of 'Charles' She thanked the man for waiting for her and headed back to the Bartowskis.

When Sarah came in, they could tell that she was upset about something, but at first she just explained what was to happen with the information that they had put together.

With that out of the way though, she thrust the first telegram she'd received at Chuck and said in a demanding tone "Chuck, explain to me about COLONEL Barton!"

Chuck and Ellie looked at each other, but Ellie waved at him to explain and then slipped out of the room. As she came back in, Chuck was telling Sarah that he'd been given credit for things that had happened at the end of the war, and as a result of that he'd been given a brevet rank of Colonel as he left the Army.

Ellie was _not_ happy about what she heard, and she said. "Chuck, I thought you'd learned your lesson about what happens when relationships are based on lies from Miss Roberts?"

She passed a number of framed certificates she held to Sarah as she ordered him to "Show her!"

"El, No!"

"She'll see them soon enough if you haven't managed to ruin this, show her!"

He glared at her for a while and the sighed in resignation as he pulled out his shirt tails and lifted his shirt. Sarah's breath caught as she saw the scars, and she whispered, "Off, take it off please, I need to see them."

As he was pulling the shirt over his head, she quickly took in the details of what was on the certificates in her hand, as they were for his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, his brevet promotion to full Colonel and the Medal of Honor that he was awarded for what he'd done at Cripple Creek.

They told a story of him taking command of the remnants of his company at twenty (though she knew from what she'd been told that he'd actually been sixteen) when all the other officers had been killed or badly wounded, inspiring and leading the men to successfully hold off vastly superior Confederate forces until reinforcements arrived, ensuring that the critical position did not fall to the confederacy, even though he was severely wounded at the time. Somehow this story was very familiar to Sarah, but she couldn't put her finger on why she knew it.

When he had his shirt off, she put the certificates aside and looked at the terrible scars on his body, both front and back. When she was done, she rested her hand on his bare chest and looked up at him.

"Chuck, if we are to be together, we must make a pact with each other, that there will be no secrets or lies between us."

Chuck looked her in the eye and nodded "No secrets, No lies, I promise."

Sarah nodded at that, repeating "No secrets, no lies!" and then said. "Now I believe that that promise requires you to explain what Ellie just said about a Miss Roberts?"

He sighed and nodded in resignation, saying "As you will, but may I put my shirt back on first?"

She said "As you wish.", stretching up on tip toe to kiss him quickly.

When he was covered again, she said "So, Miss Roberts?"

"I met Jill, Jill Roberts, through Ellie's beau Devon a few years ago, as her family moved in the same circles as his family did. We'd been courting for about a year, and had just gotten betrothed, because while we weren't in the same social strata, my notoriety as the Hero of Boston raised me several levels in the measure of those who had any regard for that sort of thing" (Sarah made a note to go back to 'the Hero of Boston' matter later.)

"That was when Ellie and Devon spied her and Bryce Larkin, who was supposedly my best friend at the time, in a rather compromising situation at a function that they were attending with Devon's family, though Devon later claimed that you couldn't be certain that it was her."

Ellie spat out "Oh yes you could!" at that point.

"Anyway, I confronted Jill about it and she broke down and promised me that had been a one time thing and he must have gotten her drunk somehow as she would never have anything to do with someone like him, and I believed her because, well, I believed everyone back then."

"At least, I believed her until she suddenly started pressing me to get married immediately, saying that we should elope, because she couldn't stand to wait for all the usual planning and rigmarole. Even I was suspicious when she said that, because she'd been keeping me at arms length for weeks at that point, so I dug my heels in until she told me the truth, and I cut off all connections with her when she did."

"You see it turned out that the reason that she needed to get married in such a hurry was that she was carrying Bryce's child. They'd been carrying on the entire time that we'd been together, but of course he'd refused to marry her when she found that she was pregnant."

"When I refused to marry her under those conditions, they threatened to tell everyone that I'd forced myself on her and then tossed her aside after I'd ruined her, and when I wouldn't buckle, that's exactly what they did. Her own father refuted that story when he publicly threw her out of his house and told all and sundry that he'd kill Larkin if he ever saw him again for what he'd done to his daughter, but the damage had already been done. In the society circles, I've been persona non grata ever since, and I'm afraid it's sullied El's reputation a little as well."

Ellie waved that off "Do you think that I care what those fools think? I would never have forgiven you if you'd given in to their blackmail and married that trollop!"

Chuck smiled at her and turned back to Sarah. "So that's the story of Miss Roberts, I was crucified for not marrying her when she was carrying my baby, even though I had never known her in the biblical sense, or any other woman, for that matter."

Sophie looked down at that. "I truly wish that I could say the same. I am not a virgin Chuck, it was only the one time, and it wasn't exactly consensual, but I have been with a man."

Chuck tried to tell her that she didn't need to tell him this, but she angrily shook her head "No! I made you tell me your secret because of our pact, so now I must tell you mine!"

Ellie smiled at her at that, yes, this girl was a keeper!

"It was after we completed that operation where you saw me speaking in Polish in New York, the Secret Service agents and Marshals, and some of the Police who'd been involved, had a big celebration. It seemed that people were making sure my glass was full all night and I ended up falling down drunk."

"In the morning I woke in the bed of one of the other Secret Service agents, and I was hurting down there, so I knew that he'd had me. He tried to tell me that it had been my idea, and told me to ask people who were there, but I knew that that wasn't true. Those names he gave me were his friends, whom I'm pretty sure had been keeping my glass full. That WAS the only time, and it wasn't something I sought, but I am not a virgin Chuck, so if you wish to call off the betrothal, I will not hold that against you."

She looked down, trying not to cry, until he stepped up to her and lifted her face to make her look at him, softly asking "Are you a fool? Do you really think that I would hold that against you under the circumstances?"

She slowly shook her head as she looked him in the eye. "No. If you have changed your mind and wish to call off the betrothal, that is your choice, but you will not have me calling it off for that. I want to be with you!"

The tears did come now as she buried her face in his chest, so that he only just heard her say "I want to be with you _too_!", but he did, and he kissed her on the head and whispered that it would be all right as he held her.

When she'd composed herself, she wiped away the tears and tried to smile as she said "Well that has answered another question I had." Chuck looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"When you were introducing me to people at your parent's funeral, they kept saying that I was better than the other one, now I know why!"

He smiled at that as he nodded, and asked, "So, do you now have all your questions answered?"

She smiled back at him and said "Yes… No! What did you mean about 'the Hero of Boston'?"

Chuck nodded again. "The accounts of the Battle of Cripple Creek were widely publicised, and as Charles Barton was supposedly from Boston, the good people of Boston decided that I was their greatest hero, well the most decorated one anyway. They gifted me this house and a number of other things in recognition for my actions in the war. We didn't want to take them, but my family had used everything they had to come and find me, so if I turned them down we would have had nothing, so I accepted their gifts and became 'the Hero of Boston'."

Again, Sarah thought that she should be remembering something here, but she just didn't know what it was!

She smiled at him, saying "Thank you" as she hugged him.

* * *

Sarah went to get her things from the lodging house where she'd been staying, as her orders meant that she was to stay at the Bartowskis' house until the Army escort arrived.

When she got back, Chuck was making himself up a bed on the lounge in their office/study as he and Ellie did not feel right using their parents' room, so he was going to give Sarah his room. However Sarah and Ellie convinced him that Sarah could share with Ellie while she was there, so he could keep his room.

The first night, Sarah slipped out of the bed she was sharing with Ellie and went to Chuck's room. He was only still only half awake as he opened his eyes to see her taking off her nightgown, and she looked like an angel in the moonlight as she pushed the nightgown up and back over her head.

While he was enchanted by the sight of her, he tried to argue that she shouldn't be there, without waking his sister. It was only when she countered, in tears, that she needed him to wipe out the memory of what that other man had done to her that he had buckled.

He called up the memories in his head from both men and women to tell him how to make this a wonderful experience for her, though he rejected the more shocking examples from much freer cultures than their own. Eventually they fell asleep in each other's arms, thoroughly sated.

In the morning though, when she woke and found blood on the sheets, Sarah panicked and shrieked.

Ellie burst into the room almost before the shriek finished, but even the vicious way she hissed at Chuck "What did you do to her?" didn't prepare him for the strength of the slap that almost knocked him from the bed.

It was Sarah who stopped her, as she cried. "Ellie, NO! He didn't want to. He wanted to wait until we were wed, but I pleaded with him to wipe out the memory of that other one!"

Ellie relented a little at that, but she snapped "OUT! I need to examine her!" at Chuck, so he hastily grabbed some clothes and scampered off to the wash room as fast as he could.

Ellie propped the door shut (as she'd broken the latch as she burst in) and once Sarah agreed, started her examination. The surprised sound she made just worried Sarah more, so she started asking.

"What is it? What's wrong with me?"

She _wasn't_ expecting Ellie to give a little chuckle as she said "Sarah, relax! There's nothing wrong with you, you've only broken your maidenhead, so technically you were still a virgin, there at least."

"How is that possible? I told you how he had me when I was drunk!"

"Yes, I know, so I examined further, and your rectum shows signs similar to boys who have been brought into the hospital after they've been had by men. It appears as though he used you as a boy, rather than as a girl. It doesn't make what he did any better, but technically you were a virgin until last night."

Sarah stared at her, still looking rather shocked, so Ellie gently asked "Are you OK Sarah?" and Sarah's expression cleared as she hugged her and said "Oh yes! That's wonderful news Ellie!"

* * *

Ellie laughed at that, but went on. "I have to ask, how did you not know this? Wasn't any of this ever explained to you?"

That sobered Sarah, and she shook her head. "No, you see my mother died of the consumption when I was about seven, and my father took me and left town straight after that, because my mother's parents didn't think much of him. I'm pretty sure that they wanted me to stay with them, and that's why he took me away. My father was a confidence man, and that meant that we never spent long enough in any one place for me to get to know anyone well enough for them to tell me about that sort of thing."

"Just before I turned twelve, in New Orleans before the Union Occupation started in sixty two, my father got himself caught and strung up. I did OK on my own for a little while, but I was developing early and I was starting to attract men's attention. I made the most of that when I had to, I could make myself up to look like I was in my late teens as I was taller than most girls, but I was caught when I was working a Confederate function, trying to get the money to get out of there."

"The men who caught me were dragging me out the back to have me and then give me a whipping, but a Colonel, Colonel Graham, stopped them, as he'd heard me trying to convince the men to let me go and he'd heard what they'd ignored because they were only thinking about one thing. He'd heard how convincing I could be as rich, poor, north, south, anything. He gave me a choice, I could come and be a spy for him, or he would let these men do what they wanted with me. I was so terrified that I agreed to work for him, thinking that I'd be able to get away from him soon enough."

"I had underestimated him though, as he always managed to make sure that I couldn't escape. I was twelve when I started getting the curse, but I knew women by then who I could ask about it without him finding out."

Ellie couldn't believe that she'd been forced to become a spy when she was just a twelve year old girl, but that led to another question "If you were a Confederate spy, how did you become President Grant's ward, and a Secret Service Agent?"

"I was one of the very best spies the Confederacy had, I could go to functions and the like and meet people, getting all their secrets out of them, but in the last stages of the war they were getting desperate for something big to let them triumph over the north. That's why the Colonel sent me to City Point to get General Grant into bed, get his secrets out of him and kill him."

She looked at Ellie with more than a little shame "I was often sent in to get information out of men and kill them like that, it was always presumed that I laid with them to get the information, but dead men tell no tales. I was so good at it, they gave me the name the Black Widow."

She looked out the window as she continued "If I ever baulked at doing anything he told me to do, he would come up with a new threat to make me obey. That time it was that I would be turned over to the men in the roughest camps to be used however they wanted until they tired of me or I was dead, and if I was still alive when they tired of me I'd be sent on to another camp. So I went to City Point to do what I was told."

"I got into City Point without trouble and charmed my way past everyone to get to the General, but he was more of a kindly uncle than any man I'd dealt with in the war, bar one. He was a good man and wasn't about to bed some girl who'd managed to talk her way into his chambers."

"When I realised that I'd failed to do what I was sent to do, I started thinking about what was going to happen to me if the Colonel found out, and for the first time since I was a little girl, I started crying. Then I told him what I was there for. My tears washed a fair bit of my makeup off, and what he saw made him pull me over to the wash stand to wash the rest of the paint off my face, but when he really saw my face he asked 'Just how old are you child?' I'd given up trying to keep up any act by then, so I told him the truth, that I was fourteen. He held me in his arms as I cried, and I believe that I may have heard him crying as well."

"He assured me that I wouldn't be going back, that he'd make sure that I was cared for, but for the now he moved the aide out of the room next to his so that he could keep me under his eye until he could send me somewhere safe. Over the next month or so, I stayed there and told them everything I could about the Confederates, and when the war was over, he took me back with him."

"He knew that I'd never feel safe so long as Colonel Graham was alive, and that the man was too evil to let live, so he sent another Confederate spy and assassin who had come over to the North in to assassinate the Colonel, along with others of his ilk. The Bear dealt with him just before the war ended."

"After the war, the Grants looked after me, but I wasn't used to being part of polite society, so I was often pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable and my wilful ways tended to get me into trouble. Eventually, Uncle Sam gave up and pulled some strings to get me into Columbia Law, as a boy a few years older than I actually was. I graduated Magna Cum Laude from there in sixty eight, as Samuel Walton, just after Uncle Sam was elected President."

"He knew that I was still practising the tricks of the trade, just for fun and to keep my hand in, so he told me that if I could manage to stay out of trouble until he took office, I could work for him, to make me behave. I knew that I couldn't pull the wool over his eyes because he was having someone keep an eye on me, probably the Bear because I never actually caught him out, so I behaved myself until he'd been inaugurated, and he took me on as a Special Secret Service Agent, reporting directly to him."

She looked at Ellie "So that was how I became the ward of President Grant and a Secret Service Agent."

Ellie held her for a while, crying over what she'd gone through, then she reminded her that she had to tell Chuck about this and sent her off to the wash room to get cleaned up and dressed while she stripped the bloodstained sheets off the bed.

When she saw Chuck, Ellie told him that he had to fix the door latch on his room, challenging him to say something about it, but he wasn't about to risk setting her off again, so he just nodded.

* * *

Downstairs in Chuck's workroom, Sarah told him what she'd told Ellie, and also about the fact that, as Ellie had discovered, she'd actually been a virgin until they were together. He cried for what she'd gone through, but was happy about the fact that they were each other's first, that way.

Sarah received another message from Uncle Sam to say that their escort had left Washington, but it would take them two days to get there, even with the special train that they were travelling on, and that she and Chuck were expected to come back with them to explain what they had put together.

Sarah and Chuck kept working in the Culper Ring information, and they managed to add another dozen sheets to the pile.

They also worked on Sarah's weapons etc. Chuck got the holsters out of the way first, then made up new grips to fit Sarah's smaller hands for one pair of the .46 revolvers and one pair of the .46 derringers. The extra .38 revolvers were already made for smaller hands, Ellie's. Ellie's carbine was also a good fit for Sarah as it was, so nothing needed to be done with it.

Chuck also made up a bunch more of the quick loaders for the weapons, just in case.

With her clothes there, Sarah had gone back to wearing trousers much of the time around the house, as she was more comfortable that way, so as soon as Chuck had made up her holsters and amended the grips on 'her' 46s, she wore them most of the time to get used to them, with one of the 38s in a holster at the back and one in her boot, just as Chuck wore them.

In the time that they had been waiting, Chuck had made arrangements for Ellie to stay with their neighbours, the Johnsons, while he and Sarah were in Washington, and had taken most of what she'd need for the time he'd be away to their house.

 **A/N: OK, I'm taking some liberties here due to the divergence of this world from our's. As Rollins wasn't able to stop people using cartridge revolvers in my (this) world, there was a large scale take-up of Rimfire cartridges during the war and many cap & ball revolvers were converted to use them. This meant that there were a hell of a lot of .38 and .46 Rimfire weapons after the war. Given the multitude of weapons that were using .38 & .46 cartridges and the shortcomings of Rimfire ammunition, it only makes sense for them to develop better Centrefire ammunition for those calibres and to modify the weapons to use it. That's what's happened here, had to go back and amend the previous chapter to cater for this, sorry.  
**


	4. Trains, Traitors and Tempers

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

When the three steam wagons carrying their escort turned up, they found that Uncle Sam was true to his word, as the officer in command was Major Thomas Paterson, who'd been the only other officer from Chuck's company to survive the Battle of Cripple Creek, and was someone that Chuck had counted as a friend to boot. Sergeant Henry Parker, from the Chuck's first mission to blow up the bridge, was with him as well as his First Sergeant.

Tom and Hank had also been involved in numerous operations that Sarah had been part of, so Sarah knew them as well, and more to the point, respected and liked them for their ability. She liked them even more for the fact that they'd been among the very few men who hadn't been trying to get into her bloomers, so they'd become friends through their experiences together.

Even Ellie knew them from their visits to Chuck in the hospital, so Uncle Sam had definitely delivered on his promise.

Tom had brought three Lieutenants with him, and they were astounded when their Major saluted an obviously younger civilian and addressed him as 'Colonel Barton'.

Sarah noted quite a difference between these Lieutenants though. One of them, Lieutenant Dent, was mainly confused as he was trying to work out what the hell was going on. The other two, however, were showing open derision and disdain, at both Tom and Chuck.

They also seemed more focused in ogling her and Ellie than anything else. She knew far too many men, for want of a better word, like them. They were the sons of privilege, so they believed that they deserved, and could take, anything they wanted, and were certain that daddy's wealth and power would make sure of it.

Chuck, Sarah and Ellie were all packed and ready, given that they'd had plenty of time to prepare and their business was urgent, so their escort didn't spend long at the Bartowski house. They only spared the time for Tom and Hank to sit down for a coffee with Sarah and the Bartowskis, offer their condolences for Chuck and Ellie's loss and exchange news (they hadn't seen the Bartowskis since Chuck was in the Depot Hospital at City Point, over five years ago).

Once that was done, Chuck escorted Ellie next door to the Johnsons' and thanked them for looking after her while Sarah picked up the gun cases with their carbines and the cylinder that held what they'd put together, and Tom called for someone to take their bags.

Sarah looked at Tom in disbelief when two of his Lieutenants made a spectacle of themselves fighting over which of them would take her bag and he just shook his head, barking out "Mr Parker! Would you take Miss Walker's bag, please?"

Hank saluted with a crisp "Yes, Sir" and deftly wrenched the bag out of the Lieutenants' hands before picking up Chuck's bag and turning to lead off out to the wagons.

Chuck returned to lock up the house and then they headed for the station.

The behaviour of the three Lieutenants continued along the same vein as Sarah had initially observed on the way to the station, in that Lieutenant Dent advised Tom that he would take the rear wagon to oversee the rear guard while the other two did their best to stay close to Sarah in the centre wagon, jostling for position as they tried to engage her, even after she'd rebuffed them a number of times.

The way that Sarah's snug blouse and trousers displayed her attributes was probably part of what drove them to distraction, but their attitudes about what type of woman wore trousers instead of skirts obviously played a greater role. In the end it took Tom ordering them to go to the front wagon to get them away from her.

Sarah, unfortunately, had more experience that most in dealing with men who thought that they were god's gift to women, but even by the standards of the dregs of society that she'd had to endure for much of her life, those two were over the top. Even after being ordered by Tom to stay away from her and Chuck, they continued to try to make advances once they were on the train.

No matter what Sarah or Chuck said, they wouldn't give up. Eventually Sarah was pushed to the point of drawing her revolvers and telling them both that they had ten seconds to get out of her sight before she started shooting.

The gunshots as she shot away pieces of their clothing brought Tom and the troopers running, because those fools hadn't run when she warned them, they'd just laughed and said things along the lines of 'You know you don't mean that Darlin'.

As Tom entered the car, he saw one of his lieutenants trying to draw his pistol to take a shot at Sarah (though he was having trouble with that due to the way he was trying to glue himself to the floor), so he knocked him out with a rifle butt to the back of the head. He knew that there was a good chance that he'd cracked the man's skull, but the thought of that didn't bother him in the least.

When the other one started raving from where he was huddled into a corner about the crazy bitch trying to kill them, Tom told him to shut up, but his response was to surge to his feet, demanding that something be done about her, until she parted his hair with another round and he dove for the floor again.

Chuck called down "Tom, get them out of our sight and keep them away from us, before Sarah kills them!" because Sarah was probably too angry to speak at the moment. Tom decided that he'd have to find out what they did to push her to this point, but first he had to get them out of there alive.

"Sarah, will you stop shooting long enough for us to get them out of here, please?"

"OK Tom, if you make sure that they keep their mouths shut, otherwise all bets are off!"

Tom could see that the conscious one was about to say something else at that and he went to shut him up, but Hank had seen it as well and pistol whipped him good and hard. Now they had two unconscious officers to carry out, both with possible cracked skulls, but at least they were safely quiet.

He stopped Hank before he left with the troopers carrying them out. "Mr Parker?"

"Yes, sir?"

"For the good of everyone, please ensure that their weapons are removed and they're kept in the baggage car for the remainder of the trip."

"Yes, sir."

"If they become unruly, you have my authorisation to put them in irons, along with anyone else who tries to interfere with you doing as I have ordered."

Hank grinned "Yes, sir!"

Then he hesitated. "Question, if I may, sir?"

"Go ahead."

"Do I have the authority to pre-empt trouble?"

"Explain?"

"These officers have a number of the men who always seem to be around them, I'm not sure that it would be safe to leave those men free to roam about if we have them locked up."

Tom nodded, and raised his voice so the other troopers heard as well "Round them up and disarm them as well Mr Parker, come to think of it, put all of them in irons. Leaving any of them free is probably just asking for trouble."

"Yes, sir!"

"Now I've got to find out what they did to set off Miss Walker like that."

Hank grinned again "Better you than me sir, good luck!"

Tom gave him a dirty look. "Thanks, well, you go and deal with these idiots and I'll see about the lady with a shorter fuse than normal."

With that, Tom headed up the car, _after_ calling out "Permission to approach?"

He did feel a little better when Sarah laughed and said. "Of course Tom! Do you think we'd do anything to you do you?"

* * *

When he reached them, Chuck was showing Sarah the process to reload her pistols with the quick loaders. Considering that she obviously hadn't used them before, it was damned impressive, how quick she did it. Watching Chuck do it was amazing though!

When they were down to picking up the empty, and unspent, shells, Tom asked his question. "OK Sarah, why were you trying to kill my officers?"

"For a start, Major Paterson, I wasn't, if you check them over carefully, you'll find that neither of them have a scratch from me, though what they're wearing will have a few holes. From what I heard, you did more damage to them than I did."

"As for why I was shooting _at_ them, however, the bastards wouldn't leave me alone! I told them I wasn't interested, I told them I wanted to be left in peace with my fiancé, I even waved my engagement ring in their faces, and they still kept making advances at me! Are you going to tell me that I should have to put up with that Tom? Because if you are, you may well be on the list when I start shooting for real!"

"Of course not! You heard me tell them to go and attend to their duties and stop bothering our charges! I can't believe that they'd ignore a direct order like that…"

"Wait! What was that about your fiancé?"

Sarah held up her hand with the engagement ring and said "Chuck and I are betrothed."

"Really?"

"Really!"

"But I was under the impression that it was less than a week ago that the two of you met?"

Her "So?" had very dangerous undertones.

He broke into a smile "Well apparently our Chuck is a fast worker nowadays, congratulations! I just hope you understand what a man you have here Sarah."

That earned him one of her smiles that lit up the room "Thanks Tom, and yes, I'm learning about that."

He looked at Chuck "Congratulations Chuck, you have one hell of a woman here! Good luck trying to tame this wildcat though. Just be careful, I'd hate to lose you after what you went through at Cripple Creek!"

Chuck laughed as Sarah mock glared at Tom "Do you really think that anyone could tame her Tom?"

Tom joined in the laughter "No, you have a point there!"

As they were talking, a trooper came up to advise Tom that Sergeant Parker had secured the prisoners.

Tom nodded and dismissed him, but stopped him before he'd left, asking him to have Lieutenant Dent come up, the man nodded, said "Yes, sir" and headed off.

Sarah was looking at Tom, waiting for an explanation, so he gave it "I'm guessing that you'd like something to get your mind off that other business?" (Sarah nodded) "Well if Andy joins us we'll have a fourth so we can play cards. He's a good boy..."

He broke off when Chuck snorted, and responded "I know he's about your age Chuck, but I still think of you as a boy, too."

Chuck and Sarah looked at each other and Chuck spoke "About that Tom, I'm not twenty five, I just turned twenty two a month ago, I faked my age along with my name when I enlisted."

Tom stared at him "You were _**s**_ _ **ix**_ _ **teen**_ at Cripple Creek?"

"Keep your voice down! But yes, I was."

Chuck was saved from having to discuss this further by Lieutenant Dent's arrival. "You sent for me Sir?"

With another sideways look at Chuck, Tom asked "Do you play poker Andy?"

He looked confused "Yes sir."

"Then it's Tom, not Sir. Sit down, we need a fourth. This is Sarah, and Chuck."

Andy nodded politely to them as he sat down, but hesitated as he looked at Chuck. "I'm sorry Sir, but could you explain how someone of your obvious youth can be a Colonel?" Chuck glared at Tom, who chuckled.

"I told you Andy, it's Chuck, there are no Sirs here, and I must warn you, Sarah's likely to shoot you if you call her Ma'am. In answer to your question, Chuck is a Colonel because he left the war as a Lieutenant Colonel and Brevet Colonel, with the Medal of Honor, he saved me and a lot of other men in the Battle of Cripple Creek."

Andy glanced at Sarah and Tom chuckled again "No, Sarah doesn't have any military rank, as far as I know?" (she shook her head) "But she _is_ a Special Secret Service Agent with a lot of pull, and as I just found out, she's also engaged to Chuck."

Andy immediately offered his congratulations to the two of them, earning himself one of Sarah's smiles.

After that, they started playing, and they spent much of the trip playing cards and talking.

* * *

They should have known better than to expect that they could make it all the way to Washington without trouble. This was driven home to them as they pulled into one of the small towns that they were using as a water stop as they went through Pennsylvania.

As they headed into the town, Hank, who was up the front of the train, sent a runner to Tom with a warning that it was too quiet!

At the same time, he ordered the troopers in his car to arm up, so that they all had their Winchesters in their hands, ready, as they pulled into the town.

(The detail were mostly armed with the Winchester Model 1866 repeaters in .46 Short, because the extra firepower was important in the type of close up action that Tom's people were generally involved in, while the rest had the standard Sharps .50 Government carbines. Chuck had noticed that Hank still carried Colonel Sanders' Yellow Boy that he'd been given after they lost the Colonel in the Regiment's last battle.)

At Hank's warning, Andy grabbed up one of the Winchesters that had been taken off the troopers who were locked up and ran back to the rear car, ordering the men there to arm up and be ready.

Hank had also sent their best troopers back the car where Tom, Sarah and Chuck were to bolster the forces there as Chuck and Sarah were getting their carbines and quick loaders ready.

Chuck used the extra strength he had gotten from the Daemon to wrench the seat backs and squabs from some seats, in order to use them as barriers against the windows. Luckily everyone but Sarah was too busy to notice when he did that.

Chuck had tried to calculate where the attack was most likely to come from, but there were far too many variables, so he'd set up these nests on either side of the car. While he and Sarah knelt together on the floor on one side with the quick loaders on the floor in easy reach, Tom took the nest on the other side with three of the Winchesters beside him, so that he could just grab another when he'd emptied one (after all, they had a dozen spares that had been taken from the men locked up back in the baggage car).

Tom had to smile when he looked over at Sarah and Chuck, because for all the danger of their situation, they were holding hands and talking quietly to each other.

He also made a note to himself that he had to have a look at those rifles of their's once this was over though, because they looked like nothing he'd ever seen before.

As the loco pulled to a stop at the water tower, all hell broke loose, because the train was riddled with gunfire. From the amount of gunfire hitting the train, it appeared that the attackers had at least double their numbers. Given that they also had less protection on the train than their attackers did, the situation didn't look at all good for them.

That was why Tom thought they were done for when that Gatling gun opened up from down the other end of the main street, because they'd kept it back out of the effective range for the Winchesters and the carbines, but the more powerful .50 Government rounds of the Gatling gun could still easily shred the rail cars from there.

Then Chuck opened up, and Tom discovered part of why that rifle of his looked so strange, as it appeared to be a very powerful and accurate repeater, it actually seemed even more powerful than a .50 Government. That cannon of his boomed four times, so close that it sounded like one long report.

With that, the panicked horses were dragging the wagon with the Gatling gun mounted on it away out of the town at the gallop, while the gunner, loader and driver all lay dead on the ground where it had been standing. (Those four shots had taken out the three men and laid a raking shot across the rumps of both horses to spook them into bolting.)

With the Gatling gun problem addressed, and their ace in the hole revealed, Chuck began taking out the targets he'd been assessing when the Gatling gun showed itself.

Once he'd addressed all the targets on that side that the heavier .46-80 rounds could handle better than Sarah's .46-40 rounds, or the troopers' .46 Short or .50 Government Carbine rounds, he grabbed up a few of the carbine quick loaders, kissed Sarah on the cheek and ducked across to the other side where Tom was.

Tom had picked up on what Chuck was doing, so he pointed out a number of targets that they weren't managing to do anything against. Chuck assessed what Tom had pointed out and started taking them out, along with any others that he had a better chance with.

Chuck had just reloaded his carbine a third time when the door at their end of the car was kicked in and a man leapt in with a revolver in each hand, only to be blown back out the door (along with the men behind him) by the load of buckshot from the shotgun barrel of Chuck's carbine.

Some of the troopers swivelled to face the other door when they saw that, so just as it was kicked in, the men there were peppered with gunfire. The troopers in the other cars heard this and enough of them twigged to what was happening, calling out 'watch the doors', to ensure that they managed to dispatch any who attempted to breach their cars.

* * *

They'd repelled the attack, at the cost of seventeen of their troopers, and mopped up what was left in the town within forty five minutes, though they could see that at least twenty to thirty of their attackers had escaped before they started mopping up.

The first thing that Tom did once they'd gained control of the town was send a team out to recover that Gatling gun and its ammunition from the overturned wagon a little ways out of town. They also released the horses, who were little worse the wear, other than the scars across their rumps from Chuck's last shot, and the marks where they'd kicked each other as they'd struggled to get free.

Tom then sent off telegrams to have those who'd escaped tracked down and get the authorities in to clean up the town and recover the attackers' bodies. He also sent his men out to collect all the weapons that their attackers had been using and bring them back to the train, but this created a significant concern, as the weapons recovered were nearly all Army issue!

While they were doing that, the town's people were released from where they'd been locked up. Only about half a dozen of them had resisted and been killed, after that the others had gone along peacefully.

They'd taken thirty five prisoners, and while they weren't answering any questions (yet), the way they'd snarled at those already locked up, blaming them for the way this came out, was certainly enlightening!

While the bodies didn't carry anything to identify them, Chuck was getting recollections about many of them, so he grabbed some paper and pencils and was recording everything as it came up. Tom sent a protective detail with him, and Sarah stuck by his side, his carbine in her hands.

They did have another worry though, in that the train's engineer and fireman had both been shot as it pulled to a stop, and they certainly didn't want to be sitting there, waiting for the ones who'd escaped to come back with reinforcements. Tom sent a trooper to fetch Chuck, as he was still off recording the information on the dead, to ask if he was able to run the locomotive.

There lay a problem, because even with the umpteen thousands of people's memories he had in his head courtesy of the Daemon, not one of them had been a train engineer, but hopefully it shouldn't be that different from McCready's steam dray, so he said he'd have a look. He told Tom to get the men working on filling the water tanks and coal tender, because if they _did_ get it going, they didn't want to be stopping any more than they had to.

Fifteen minutes later, he decided that he understood enough of the controls to handle this, so he nodded to Tom, who in turn gave the order for everyone to get on the train. The loco's enclosure was rather crowded, because Sarah wasn't about to be separated from Chuck and Tom insisted that his orders were to make sure that Chuck was delivered safely, so he wasn't letting him out of his sight!

Chuck gave in as he was in truth too spent to argue, but told Tom that he was the relief fireman if Johnson got tired, and as soon as they had the signal that everyone was on-board, he engaged the driving wheels and away they went.

Tom was made responsible for keeping a lookout in front of them, because Chuck was too busy trying to concentrate on running the loco. They probably damaged to the loco, the way they ran it, and they'd had a few scares along the way because none of them understood what the railroad signals meant, but they managed to reach Washington Station, albeit about three hours after they were supposed to.

When they arrived, there was a steam carriage waiting with an escort to take Chuck and Sarah to the President's House, while Tom and his troopers were told to go on to the barracks. That created a stand-off between Tom and the Captain of the escort, as Tom told him in no uncertain terms that he and members of his unit would be escorting their charges to the President's House and delivering them to the President, so the Captain and the remainder of his unit could escort their mens' bodies, the prisoners and the captured weapons to the barracks when alternate transport arrived.

The Captain was refusing to budge, but Chuck was at the end of his tether so the man got his recently fired gun barrels shoved under his nose and was instructed to get out of their way! That was enough to make him shut up and comply quick smart!

After that, it didn't take too long to organise the escort and be on their way, with Tom at the head of a dozen riders before and Andy in charge of another dozen riders behind the carriage, two troopers running the carriage plus two troopers inside with Sarah and Chuck.

One of the troopers inside was Hank, and once they were under way, he grinned at him "A hell of a ride, eh, Colonel?"

Chuck couldn't do much more than shake his head tiredly at him "I could have done without most of it Hank!"

Hank grinned again, before saying. "By the way, I hear that congratulations are in order? I never thought I'd see you settle down with any man Miss Walker, but I've got to tell you, you've got yourself a prize here!"

Sarah smiled at him "I am coming to realise that! Thanks Hank."

* * *

When they reached the President's House, they left the horses and carriage out front and headed in, Tom and his men forming up around Sarah and Chuck. They almost had another problem at the door, but President Grant had assigned people to wait for them there. They got Sarah, Chuck, Tom and a dozen picked troopers past the guards and on their way to the President's office, while Andy took the rest of the troopers to the guards' mess to get something to eat and wait for the core group.

Arriving at the President's antechamber, things got interesting. Half of the waiting room was filled with Secret Service Agents and U.S. Marshals because their bosses were in with the President. Sarah and Tom recognised quite a few of them, especially a face from the past that neither had expected to see there, but Chuck only recognised one, Bryce Larkin, the ex friend who'd gotten his intended pregnant and tried to ruin his life.

If Chuck hadn't been reeling from the flood of images relating to Larkin's dealings with the Culper Ring and other illegal organisations, he may have noted the look of surprise and anger that flashed across Larkin's face when he saw Chuck and Sarah, and the comfortable closeness between them, but by the time he'd recovered, Larkin had his mask up again.

Similarly, Sarah probably would have noted Larkin's reaction if she hadn't herself been reeling at the sight of Uncle John, John Casey, and what she'd suddenly remembered about what had been staying just out of reach whenever someone mentioned Cripple Creek, but she, too, missed it. As it was, she hadn't noticed him at all, so she wasn't at all prepared for what happened.

Larkin's job here was to watch for the group coming from up north in case the ambush at the railroad station failed, and deal with them if they arrived, but that Major Paterson was supposed to be bringing in a Colonel Barton and some government agent, Walker. A milksop like Chuck Bartowski was certainly no Colonel, and she was Sarah Wiseman, so the Major was obviously here to report that he'd lost his charges to the ambush.

He smiled to himself as he decided that as his task here had now been rendered unnecessary, he was free to lay his claim to Wiseman and put Bartowski in his place. He rose to his feet and straightened his clothes, sauntering over to where the two were talking with their heads together.

Sarah was trying to work out what Chuck was trying to tell her about Bryce Larkin, Tom was staring at the man he'd never expected to see again and their escort had allowed themselves to be lulled into a sense of false security, here in the President's antechamber, so no-one noted Bruce Gordon (as that was the name Larkin was using now) approaching them. As a result, Sarah was taken totally by surprise when she was suddenly grabbed and swung around as he said "Sarah Darling!" and kissed her hard on the mouth.

Sarah froze for a second, and then broke free and slapped him hard enough to almost bring him to his knees. 'Gordon' was brought out of the daze of that slap by the raucous laughter in the room (as no-one liked that snake) and flushed, spitting out "Why you.." as he went for his gun. But he froze then, as he suddenly had the muzzles of Chuck's carbine jammed under his nose just as that Captain had, and they were still exuding that same recently fired smell.

Larkin all but soiled himself as he let go of his gun and shot his hands up. He'd never seen anyone move that fast with a pistol, let alone a cannon like that, where had it come from?

A moment later, the Secret Service Agents and Marshals were going for their guns, not because they cared about that skunk Gordon, but that man had drawn a gun in the President's antechamber, which represented a danger to the President, especially when he was waving a cannon like that about!

When they started going for their guns, Chuck spun to face them, filling his other hand with one of his 46s. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tom drawing and standing with him. Most of the agents and marshals stopped when they saw that Chuck and Tom had the drop on them, especially those who were looking down the barrels of the carbine, but one big Marshal kept going and Chuck thought that he was going to have to fire a warning shot when the man's eyes widened, and then he heard a shot behind him.

Chuck whirled about, guns ready, to see Larkin, with a hole in his chest, toppling over as the revolver dropped from his hand, and took in the smoke rising from the muzzle of the pistol in Sarah's hand.

He was asking if she was all right when the door to the President's office was flung open and President Grant stormed out "What the Sam Hill is going on..."

He stopped as he took in the body on the floor and the smoke still rising from Sarah's pistol.

Before he could say anything else, Tom stepped forward to answer him "Mister President, when we arrived, Agent Gordon went up to Miss Walker and well, he took liberties with her Sir. She slapped him for that and he cussed her and went for his gun, but Colonel Barton drew on him, I suppose you'd call it, to protect her. Gordon immediately surrendered when he had the muzzle of the Colonel's weapon under his nose. Then these others" (waving at the assembled agents and marshals) "went for their guns and Colonel Barton turned to cover them, as did I, and then..."

He stopped as he suddenly realised that he had no idea what had happened next.

The big marshal took it up from there. "As soon as the Colonel turned his back on Gordon to cover us Sir, Gordon dropped his hands and drew, and he was about to shoot the Colonel in the back when Miss Walker shot him."

President Grant nodded at that, and waved his cigar at Gordon "Someone get rid of that" Then he pointed his cigar at Chuck, Sarah and Tom "You three, come with me" he turned and started into his office, but stopped and turned to point his cigar at the big marshal "Can wait here, please, Marshal?"

The man nodded and said "Of course, Sir" and the President proceeded on into the office, followed by the other three. As they filed into the office, they found a number of senior Secret Service and U.S. Marshals officials waiting. Chuck looked around and the President indicated a large table in the middle of the room. Chuck placed his carbine on a table on beside the door and headed for the table indicated.

President Grant picked up the carbine to look at it, and Sarah smiled as he saw the Bartowski Guns 'B' (basically two intermeshed cogs joined by a gear rack) and his eyes widened as he made the same connection she'd made five days ago. She also smiled when he put it down almost reverently before he headed over to the table in the centre of the room where Chuck was pulling the sheets out of the document case.

Chuck put the sheets on the table, still rolled up, and turned to look at the officials. One of the senior Secret Service people pushed his way forward, demanding "Well, show us this so-called information you have and tell us how you got it!"

Chuck shook his head, saying "No, not yet."

The man wasn't going to take that, so he tried to push past him, but Sarah stepped in front of him and faced him down.

Chuck ignored him and asked who was the head of the Secret Service? One of the older men waved his hand, so Chuck asked him "Who did Gordon report to?" The man pointed to one in front of Sarah. "Him, why?"

"Did he" (nodding to the man) "know about when and where we were coming in today, or who the men of the company that came to collect us were?"

The man was looking confused, belligerent, and a little concerned "Yes, why is that important?"

"Because Gordon, or Bryce Larkin as I knew him as (glancing at Sarah), was working for this new Culper Ring, and apparently so were at least a dozen others in the company that was sent to collect us."

"When we made a water stop in Pennsylvania that no-one was supposed to know about, we were ambushed by a force of two hundred or more, armed with Army rifles and a Gatling gun."

The man asked him "Do you know who sent them?" He was still belligerent, but more inclined to take Chuck seriously now.

"Not yet. We killed about two thirds of them, and we think maybe thirty got away, but we took thirty five prisoners, and some of them don't look like fighters, so it's a good bet that they were in charge."

At that the man in front of Sarah drew his gun, only to freeze as he found himself looking into of the muzzle of Sarah's pistol, and then go down like a sack of potatoes when Chuck pistol whipped him. In all probability he hit him far harder than he needed to, but he wasn't about to let anyone draw on Sarah. He re-holstered his pistol and went on as though there hadn't been an interruption.

"We also have the dozen Army personnel we'd already locked up on the train, including two of the lieutenants, who we believe may have been involved."

Tom interjected on that "When we put those other prisoners into the baggage car with them, they all seemed to know one another, so I'd say that it's a fair bet that they _were_ involved."

Chuck nodded. "The clean-up operation that Major Paterson called for should be bringing the bodies in later today, we're planning to put them on display at the main barracks to try and get some identification, as we're pretty sure that they're nearly all Army, but they weren't carrying any identification. Anyway, someone should report something when over two hundred soldiers disappear I'd hope?"

That brought a laugh in the room, and gave Chuck a chance to catch Tom's eye and signal him to stay quiet, as he'd been about to say something about Chuck identifying the bodies back in the town. With that out of the way, Chuck also pointed out that any units with large absences would have to be treated as suspect and be investigated.

By now, the one that Chuck had pistol whipped had been taken out in shackles, so Chuck and Sarah pinned the sheets out and they started going over them. They answered the questions that were asked, except for the increasingly demanding ones about where this information had come from.

Eventually one of the officials blurted out angrily "Damnit, we can't do anything with this unless you tell us where it came from, for all we know you could have plucked these names out of the newspaper."

Chuck looked at him and nodded "Then I guess you can't use the information then, I'm sorry to have wasted your time gentlemen."

He turned to head for where their carbines were when he heard a hammer being cocked behind him.

"You're not going anywhere until you explain yourself!"

Chuck turned back to face him, just as Sarah moved and the man swung the gun towards her.

Afterwards, the others all said that they didn't see him move as he leapt forward to slap the pistol down, making it discharge into the floor. He then twisted the pistol out of the man's grip so savagely that he almost ripped his trigger finger off and smashed him across the head with it.

* * *

There wasn't a sound in the room as he placed the pistol on the table, inclined his head to the President as he calmly said "And with that, I'm done, Mister President" and walked across the room to get his carbine. President Grant barked "Colonel Barton!"

The look that Chuck turned on him actually made him step back, so he moderated his tone as he waved to his desk. "Charles, may I have a quiet word with you, please?"

Chuck looked at him for a while and then nodded, saying "Yes Sir." and walking over to the President's desk.

Sarah joined them there and stood beside him, facing the other way to ensure no-one else came close. Even in the heat of the moment though, the President didn't miss the hand that Sarah kept on Chuck's arm as a measure of support.

"What is it son, why can't you tell us where this information came from?"

Chuck shook his head "No, he's right, you can't use it this way, I had thought that if I gave you the facts, you could have it confirmed through the normal channels to validate it, but I didn't think it through properly, I'm sorry Sir."

"Now hold on, there'd nothing wrong with that idea, as a matter of fact it's a damned fine idea, but you still haven't told me why you can't say where it came from."

Chuck looked at Sarah, and she squeezed his arm and nodded, so he nodded and looked back at the President "I'll tell you, sir, but not them", waving at the others in the room.

The President nodded and raised his voice. "Gentlemen, I need the room." They milled about without anyone really moving, so he barked " _ **Now**_ _ **!**_ " That got them moving, and as soon as the door has closed behind the last of them, he asked "So what's so secret about this that no-one but me and Miss Walker" (looking at her) "can hear it?"

Chuck looked at Sarah again and she squeezed his arm, he looked at the man and said "I hear the dead." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sarah frown, and then nod as she accepted that what he said was technically correct.

President Grant looked at him and asked "Can you explain that for me son?"

"I'm afraid not sir, all I know is that since the night my mother died, I hear things, see things from her and and others who are dead. When I've checked them out, they've all been right. That was how I knew that Miss Walker was a government agent, and what Woodrow Woodcomb had been getting up to. I'm sure that the information I get is true, just as I'm sure that others won't accept it if they knew where it came from."

"Perhaps, but that other idea of your's to have it confirmed through normal channels is a good one, we can probably use that. Now, may I have a word with Miss Walker in private, please?"

Chuck nodded "Of course, sir" and left the office.

Once he'd left the President looked at her, without saying a word.

Sarah blurted out "He's not insane! Everything we've investigated has been right as far as I can see! He didn't have to put himself through this, but he's got all this information and he's trying to do the right thing!"

He nodded, but reached out to gently turn her left hand over to reveal the ring "Would you care to explain this, and why you're using your real name?"

She was quiet for a moment "My name just slipped out, when he asked my name at his mother's funeral I told him Sarah Walker."

"The betrothal thing started at the funeral too, he told Woodcomb that I was his intended to get the letch off me and we decided that it would make things simpler with me coming and going if we kept up the act that I was his intended."

"He's got to go out west to honour a promise he made to his father, I'll be going with him for protection, that way we can keep access to his information."

"And if I refuse you permission to go off with this civilian?"

He saw the temper in her flare up then "Then I'll resign! You know that I'd do anything for you Uncle Sam, but he needs me and I need him!"

He chuckled, as that was exactly the reaction he'd been expecting "Did you really expect to fool me by pretending that this thing with him was an act?"

She shook her head.

"Does he feel the same way about you?"

She nodded.

"Does his family support this?"

She held up her hand "Ellie gave Chuck his mother's engagement ring to give to me."

"So this is real?"

She nodded. "Yes Uncle Sam."

He chuckled again "You know that he must meet Aunt Julia. There's no way that she'll let you give yourself to any man unless she approves of him."

Her eyes flashed again "You know that I love and honour Aunt Julia as I do you Uncle Sam, but I won't let her stop me being with him!"

He nodded and said "Even so, he still has to meet her."

She nodded to that.

He hugged her, and then turned serious "Do you believe that Charles would accept Marshal Casey as a partner?"

"I don't know, but if we do this, we need to tell Chuck the truth about who he is and what he did. I only realised when I saw him again why the stories I was hearing about what happened to Chuck at Cripple Creek sounded so familiar."

He nodded "I believe that John would insist on that anyway. I would feel a lot better if he's with the two of you to protect you while you're wandering around."

She nodded at that "I would feel safer if he was with us, too, but this has to be Chuck's decision, he did almost kill him."

The President nodded and stood to go to open the door "Colonel Barton, Major Paterson, Marshal Casey, come in please."

The senior Secret Service and U.S. Marshals officials who stood up as the door was opened couldn't believe that they were being treated in this way. After the door closed again, they clustered about the antechamber, complaining bitterly to each other when only those three had been admitted.

President Grant waved the men to their seats when they entered, and Sarah moved her chair closer to Chuck's so she could hold his hand.

The President started. "Colonel Barton, I am hoping that you will be willing to work with the government on this, I had planned to have this discussion with you before that other meeting, but the delays caused by that ambush put paid to that plan. You see, I want to team you up with Miss Walker, and one other. We have only one person with the skills, trustworthiness and connection to you to make him suitable, and that is Marshal John Casey here."

Chuck and the Marshal looked at each other, confused, and the Marshal spoke up "I don't understand Mister President, what connection? I've never met the Colonel before."

"Not face to face, no, but the two of you shared an encounter that changed both of your lives, you see John, Colonel Barton is the Hero of Cripple Creek, as you so aptly named him."

The Marshal stared at him in horror "But he died!"

"Very nearly so, but not quite!"

Chuck was looking from one to the other in confusion, and said "Can someone explain this to me, please?"

The President apologised "Sorry son, while you're at the centre of this story, we seem to have forgotten that you're the only one who hasn't heard it. You see, Marshal Casey is the sniper who almost killed you, and then gave himself up when he thought he'd killed a good man for nothing. What was it he said to you when he gave himself up Tom?"

"He came walking in with a Sharps rifle, handed it to me and said 'I've just killed the Hero of Cripple Creek for nothing, because you somehow managed to hold things together after he finally went down. I've always done my duty to the Confederacy, but I'm done now, I won't kill any more heroes like him for the petty schemes of men who aren't fit to clean their boots!' Because of that, I got him sent to City Point for questioning."

Chuck was looking pale and Sarah squeezed his hand, he looked at her then and gave her a wan smile. She leaned forward to address the Marshal. "Uncle John, will you tell Chuck the story that you told me, please?"

He looked at her for a while and then nodded, looking down as he talked.

"I was called in to ensure that we took that railroad junction at Cripple Creek, because it was crucial to supplying the entire front we were fighting on at the time. The Confederacy had sent in a short battalion, three rifle companies with about three hundred and fifty men, but because that junction was so important, they wanted to make sure that we took it without delay, so I was sent in, it was my job to make problems go away."

"When I got there, it looked as though it should be simple, the Union Army had only sent one company and they'd dug in an indefensible position, so it'd been easy to take the higher ground and fire down on them, and they couldn't control the railroad junction from where they were either. The rifle companies were giving them a beating, so I could move about and engage my targets easily."

"I took out their officers first, then the sergeants, and that's when about half of the men tried to break and run, but with our rifle companies staked out on higher ground, it was like a turkey shoot, that rout alone cut their numbers by about a third."

"I expected them to fall apart and surrender after that, but something else happened. They started putting up a real resistance for the first time, one platoon would lay down a heavy barrage of directed covering fire against the areas that presented the most risk to them while the other one moved, and then they'd swap roles and the other platoon would move. Using those tactics, they moved from their original position into a more defensible one, and from there they started to hinder our operations in the train junction as well. They were even starting to inflict serious casualties on our companies with these new tactics."

"I identified who their new leader was, but he was always on the move, and he was too good to show himself any more than he had to, he'd pop up in one location, give directions and then move to the next one. It was taking me two or three shots for every time I hit him, and when I did, he just kept getting up again. He was a hell of a soldier, and by the fifth time I hit him I was praying that he'd stay down so I could stop shooting him, but he didn't. I couldn't stop though because I had to do my duty, so when he went down for the sixth time, I put two more into him to make sure he stayed down."

"I was sure they'd fall without their leader, even that better position he'd put them in wouldn't be enough to stop our troops just battering them into surrendering, but somehow they were still holding on. That's when I saw you." (nodding to Tom) "You weren't as good as he'd been, but you were good enough to maintain the status quo until that relief column arrived three or four hours later."

"That's why I gave myself up, because I was certain that I'd destroyed something magnificent for nothing, and all my duty had been shown to be a waste."

He faced Chuck at last "I was sure I'd killed you, he" (nodding to the President) "told me that I had. That's why I started working for him, as penance for what I did more than anything."

The President spoke up, "I didn't actually lie to you John, it was nearly two months before we were sure that Charles was going to live, and over a month before we had any hope that he would."

Tom spoke up again "Chuck, it was genuine, he came into that camp with the expectation of being shot for what he'd done to you, and he almost was, though that was more for that fool of major who wouldn't listen to you and the other officers, but he gave himself up because of what he did to you!"

Chuck nodded, without saying anything.

The President spoke again. "Colonel Barton, Charles, can you accept that Marshal Casey was only doing his duty under the rules of war and get past what he did to you that day as part of that duty? Can you work with him? I won't force you to work with him if you can't, but I'd feel a lot better knowing that someone of his calibre, or rather him, as there's no-one else like him, were there to keep you and Sarah safe."

Chuck at Sarah and then back at him and nodded "Yes, sir, I can work with Marshal Casey."

"Marshal Casey, are you prepared to work with and protect Colonel Barton and Agent Walker? I must tell you that I've just been informed that Colonel Barton is committed to a side mission, and there's no way of knowing how long that will take or where it may take you."

The Marshal nodded "Yes, Mister President."

"Agent Walker, you've committed to accompanying Colonel Barton, will you accept Marshal Casey as part of your team?"

She nodded "Yes, Sir"

The President nodded and went on. "Colonel Barton, you will be better able to perform your duties with the authority of the government behind you. Are you prepared to accept the responsibilities of being a Special Secret Service Agent under the same conditions as Miss Walker, reporting directly to me?"

Chuck nodded "Yes, sir"

President Grant nodded again and handed him his credentials, and also handed Sarah her new ones, seeing as she'd never used her real name while on assignment before.

"Marshal Casey, your official role won't change, you will remain as a United States Marshal, reporting directly to me."

The Marshal nodded. "Yes, Sir."

"Tom, thank you for your assistance in this, if you could wait outside while we get some sensitive details finalised, I'll have everyone back in soon."

Tom saluted, said "Yes, Sir." and headed for the door.

As soon as the door was closed, the President went on. "Charles, I'm not sure how much of this you already know, but John and Sarah were the best spies and assassins that the Confederacy had, they were known as the Bear" (waving at John) "and the Black Widow" (waving at Sarah) "They're still the best spies I have, and they're the best I know of with weapons of any sort, so if you need any extra weapons training, or any other spy related training, they are the ones to give it to you. I'd suggest that you start with that as soon as possible."

"John, there are two things that you must know about this team, the first is that Sarah and Charles are engaged, in real life, so I expect that you'll have to put up with their displays of affection. Also, this is the main secret, not known outside the four of us.."

Chuck interjected with "And my sister Sir."

The President nodded "Outside of the five of us, you see this new information source that Charles has is from the dead. You have the right to choose not to believe this, but not to question it, we're confirming details that Charles comes up with for processing, but it's my understanding that so far it's been confirmed every time."

John looked dubious but nodded.

"We will be having dinner with Sarah and Charles, probably tomorrow night, and Julia will want to meet the person who will be working with them, so please come."

John nodded again.

"OK, could you bring the others back in please, John?"

He nodded and went to do it.

When the others were back in the room, President Grant made an announcement that there would be no more questions allowed regarding the source of Colonel Barton's information as that was top secret. Anyone wishing to do so could confirm the information via standard channels, so long as they didn't jeopardise any other areas' operations.

Following that, they spent the next three hours going through the information presented. Chuck (and to a lesser degree Sarah) answered questions, and Chuck expanded on some areas with what he'd picked up at the ambush site.

When they called it a night, Sarah and Chuck had been allocated rooms at opposite ends of the residential wing, and Uncle Sam pulled Sarah aside to plead with her, for the family's sake, to be discreet if she was going to visit Chuck's room, and to make sure that she was back in her own room by morning.

 **A/N:** **Again, as this world is slightly different from our's, many things happened earlier than they have in our world, and slightly differently. For example, the Winchester Yellow Boy came out before the War Between the States finished and was chambered for the .46 Short** **Rimfire** **cartridge to share the ammunition used in the Army revolvers, which were being converted to shoot cartridges from before the start of the war.**

 **In another story I had accelerated Winchester's development more than they show here. For the sake of argument the Army is holding that up because they are still leery of soldiers wasting ammunition, so most soldiers are still using cartridge conversions of the old single shot cap and ball long arms (like in our world).**


	5. Stories and Decisions

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Chuck was neither surprised nor disappointed when Sarah slipped into his room after everyone else was asleep, but he had to admit to being relieved when she kept her nightgown on as she slipped under the covers with him. He would always want to do anything she wanted, but he was old fashioned enough to want to court her properly, he didn't want them to go too fast.

Sarah's breath went a little ragged as she felt the warmth of Chuck's hands through her nightgown as they kissed, but she pushed that down, there would be plenty of opportunities for that once they were wed (and perhaps before, her wayward heart prompted), but for now, they needed to talk, and this was their only chance to do so privately.

She asked him whether he was really comfortable with what had come from their talks with Uncle Sam, especially being teamed up with Marshal Casey? (She made a point of not calling him Uncle John.)

Chuck nodded "Yes, it's the best team we could have, and it's an honour to be teamed up with the best spies there are, but.."

"But?"

"Can we trust him Sarah? I know he showed some remorse for what he did to me, but does that change who he is, what he is?"

Sarah looked at him "Chuck, did you listen to what Uncle Sam told you, what I told you? Uncle John and I were the Confederacy's best assassins, _both_ of us, and we've killed plenty more working for Uncle Sam as well. I've killed almost as many as he has, so if you have these doubts about him, then you must have them about me as well."

He made her look at him again "No! I trust you completely, I've seen inside your heart, I know you're a good person and you would've had a good reason when you had to kill. I'm not just saying that because I love you, I'm saying that because I feel it in here." (touching his chest) "This Marshal Casey, though, I can't see past his armour so I don't know what's inside his heart, what drives him. That's why I can't trust him in here," (touching his chest again) "not yet at least."

She nodded at that, and looked at him for a minute before speaking. "Can I tell you about John Casey, the Bear?"

Chuck nodded.

"I first met him just after I was snared by Colonel Graham, because we worked for the same people. From the first, though, he was different from all the other men. I kept myself made up to look like a girl in her late teens as I didn't want them to find how old I really was, because if they decided that I was no use to them, well I didn't want to think what would have happened to me! Because of the way I looked, most of the men wanted me, some tried to charm me, some just tried to grab me, but they were all determined to have me, all but him. He later told me that I'd fooled him about my age as well as I had everyone else, but he didn't see me as a plaything though, he just saw me as a young woman to be respected and cherished."

"Something terrible happened to him before the war Chuck, he would never tell me what it was, but he was always caring and protective of me and other girls in my position, because I wasn't the only one who'd been ensnared in the Colonel's web like that. Whenever he was there, he scared off any men who were sniffing around me, and even when he wasn't, I only had to mention 'the Bear' to make them leave me alone, because they were all afraid of him. He truly did treat me like a niece, that's why I started calling him 'Uncle John'. If I hadn't had him looking out for me, things would have gone very badly for me, I doubt I would have made it through the war without Uncle John."

She was quiet as the memories of that time washed over her, but she shook her head and continued. "Just as he had integrity and honour with women, he applied those same values to what he did. He wouldn't kill innocents, women, children, old folk, even men who weren't involved in the war. He also made those giving him orders show good cause for what they required of him. He'd do his duty to the south, to the death if that was what it took, but he had to be convinced that there was a sound reason for it."

She snorted "There were stories about the rampages he went on when he found that he'd been lied to and he'd been only sent in to satisfy the whim of some General officer. Even they were afraid of him, the only reason they didn't get rid of him was that he made more difference to the war effort than a brigade of ordinary men could."

"He told me about Cripple Creek, the last time I saw him. But he didn't tell the story the way he told us tonight, I wanted him to tell you the same way he told me."

"What do you mean?"

"I should tell you the whole story. You see, Cripple Creek did meet his criteria, with the importance of that railroad junction, but you did him in."

Chuck looked at her, confused, but she held up a finger for him to let her continue.

"As he said earlier, you foiled his plans, your company was supposed to fold and be taken with a minimum of casualties on both sides as soon as he took out their leadership, but after half of them were wiped out, you took over the remnants and made them into something stronger than before. When you did that, he had no option but to remove you, his duty demanded it."

She smiled at him "But you made that difficult for him as well, the way you were staying down and moving about all the time as you directed the men, so it took him two or three shots for every time he hit you, you were the hardest target that the Bear had ever faced. He was certain that you had to be a seasoned warrior like him, the way you handled yourself and the men, and bested those experienced Confederate commanders to hold the position. He was shocked to hear that you were only twenty, I don't know how he'll react to find out that you were actually sixteen."

"And you wouldn't stay down, he was crying as he told me that he was begging you to stay down each time he hit you, so he could leave you in peace, but you kept getting up and dragging yourself to the next position to direct the men. His own sense of duty wouldn't let him leave you be, so every time you got up, he felt duty bound to put you down again. That was why he shot you again after you went down the sixth time, because it was torture for him to keep shooting you. He was in tears as he told me what he'd had to do to you, but he felt he'd done his duty to the south, as they'd surely take the railroad junction with you gone."

"Then Tom took over, and managed to hold out until the reinforcements arrived. Uncle John couldn't go on after that, he'd forced himself to kill the most respected adversary that he'd ever faced, only to find that it was pointless, because you'd prevailed anyway. He vowed that he'd had enough after that, and that was why he surrendered, as he believed that it was the right thing to do. John Casey isn't a wanton killer Chuck, he is an honourable man who did what he believed that his duty demanded of him. He holds my trust and respect, and I hope that he can win your's, too, in time."

They lay, quiet in each others arms, for a while when she finished. Chuck didn't say anything, just kissed her forehead as he thought on what she'd told him.

Then Sarah reached up to kiss him, and their kisses became more heated until Chuck's hands started riding up under her nightgown of their own accord and his touch on her skin was setting her afire. She was on the verge of pushing him to consummate their love again when she stopped and pushed him away.

"Stop, stop, I want you, oh GOD I want you, but you were right, we should wait, and as much as I want you, here, under the roof of the closest thing I have to parents and before you've even met Aunt Julia, it's wrong! I'm sorry Chuck, I shouldn't have pushed us onto dangerous ground the way I did. Uncle Sam asked me to be discreet, and this is not being discreet!"

He kissed her on the forehead again as he shushed her "Shush, it wasn't you alone, we both let things go further than they should."

She sealed his lips with a quick kiss and regrettably untangled herself from his hands as she said. "As much as I want to stay, Uncle Sam also asked me to make sure that I was back in my own room before dawn, and if I don't go now I won't be able to."

When she was safely at the edge of the bed, she leaned in for one last kiss before she slipped out, but she stopped.

"There's one more thing that I need to tell you, the one who arranged to get me drunk so that he could have me? That was Bruce Gordon, I didn't tell you his name as I never thought I'd see him again, or that you'd ever meet him, so I believed he was just a bad memory. I had no idea that he was the one who'd betrayed you, I only ever knew him as Gordon."

Chuck reached out to pull her into his arms, kissing her on the top of the head. She felt so safe and right in his arms that she had to force herself to move, but she pushed herself to the side of the bed again and gave him one last kiss before she slipped out of his room.

Their dreams continued things from where they'd left off when they finally managed to get to sleep, so it may have been a good thing that Uncle Sam called Chuck away for a breakfast meeting, as their thoughts were clear enough on their faces as it was.

* * *

As soon as she finished breakfast with Aunt Julia, Nellie and Jesse, Sarah went looking for Chuck, and knowing Uncle Sam she headed straight for his office. He'd left orders for her to be admitted when she arrived, but she hardly waited for the door to close before she began railing at him for dragging Chuck away like that.

He was almost as angry as she was and snapped back at her "How do you think Aunt Julia would have felt to see you two carrying on at the breakfast table after what you did last night? I asked you not to!"

"We didn't do anything Uncle Sam!…... Well we didn't do that!"

He was surprised at that "If you didn't go to his room for that, what did you go for, that you stayed so long? And for that matter, why are you so flushed this morning?"

"To talk Uncle Sam! Chuck had just been confronted with being partnered up with the man who tried to kill him, and very nearly did! While he agreed, mostly for my sake." (she held up a finger to stop him when Chuck went to say something at that) "I could see that he was concerned, and his room was the only place we could talk." She looked embarrassed then and added. "As for the flushed look, well I had dreams."

Uncle Sam raised an eyebrow " _Both_ of you had these dreams?"

Sarah darted a confused look at Chuck, to take in his appearance before turning back to Uncle Sam with a little smile "Apparently so."

Uncle Sam shook his head and turned to Chuck. "I must apologise Charles, I didn't give proper thought to how finding out about Marshal Casey like that would effect you. Have your concerns been allayed? If not, we can try to find another suitable team member."

Chuck nodded "Yes, sir, Sarah told me quite a bit about Marshal Casey and has changed my view of him. I am very grateful for what he did for her down south and am more comfortable about his motivations now."

Uncle Sam turned to Sarah "What he did for you?"

"Uncle John protected me from all those men who wanted to use me as a doxy any time they felt like it. It was only their fear of him that stopped them."

Uncle Sam looked stricken, because he had never really considered that issue, even though it was so obvious now.

"So they didn't…?"

She shook her head "No, technically Chuck was my first. I didn't have anyone to talk about it when Gordon and his friends got me so drunk that I passed out so he could have me, and I didn't know enough about what was going on down there to know that he'd had me like a boy instead of a girl, all I knew was that it hurt. I only found that out when Ellie, Chuck's sister, examined me when I found blood on the sheets after we'd been together."

" _ **WHAT**_?"

Chuck went to speak but he waved him to be silent "What's this about Gordon?"

"We all had a celebration after that big operation in New York finished. He and his friends kept plying me with drinks until I passed out and he had me."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Because you would have wanted to do something about him and you couldn't in your position, anyway it's done now and at least now there won't be any questions about why I killed him."

He looked distraught as he looked at her, but then his expression turned stern as he turned to Chuck.

"NO Uncle Sam! He wanted to wait until we were married, but I went to him and begged him to help me wipe out the memory of what Gordon had done to me, and he did that quite nicely!"

At that his expression was pained "Child, I do _NOT_ want to hear about that! You'll always be my little girl to me, and that means that I don't _ever_ want to hear about things like that!"

She smiled at that and kissed him on the cheek "Sorry Uncle Sam."

* * *

At that, there was a knock on the door and Marshal Casey and Tom were admitted. Uncle Sam brought them and Sarah up to speed on what he'd been discussing with Chuck before Sarah arrived.

The first point was that he had reinstated Chuck and Marshal Casey to the Army, both of them at their final rank of full Colonel, in case they needed to use that authority to enforce the cooperation of military forces on their operations. As he handed their credentials over, the Marshal politely asked about Chuck's rank, given he'd been told that he had been twenty at Cripple Creek, and Uncle Sam waved to Chuck to explain.

Chuck looked at Sarah before he started and she gave him an encouraging smile. "Well after Cripple Creek, they promoted me from First Lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel in the Corps of Engineers. Apparently I'd already been recommended for promotion to Major by Colonel Sanders of the 2nd Cavalry months before but they hadn't finalised the proceedings. I was also made a Brevet Colonel in the Regular Army at that time, so that's what this (holding up his credentials) is."

John stared at him and Tom "A Lieutenant in the Engineers? You weren't an officer with command experience when you took over at Cripple Creek?"

"No Sir, I enlisted as a Trooper in the 2nd Cavalry in October, sixty one, but I was made a Brevet Second Lieutenant in the Cavalry so I could be given a field commission to 1st Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers in April, sixty three. I was just the Company's Engineer at Cripple Creek, I had been made a Lieutenant because Engineers are expected to be officers."

John shook his head "Even when I was told how old you were, I believed that you must have been commissioned early and had command experience in battle, to handle the situation the way you did!"

Sarah prompted. "Tell him the rest Chuck!"

He looked at her and then back to the Marshal. "I know that you were told that I was twenty at Cripple Creek Marshal, but I was actually sixteen then, as I'd falsified my age as well as my name before I enlisted."

He looked at the President "I'm presuming that you already knew that, Mister President?"

President Grant nodded thoughtfully, then looked at John. "Charles' father Stephen Bartowski was a Captain in the Corps of Engineers, and a Brevet Colonel, from the Mexican-American war, John. If we'd had the Medal of Honor back then Stephen probably would have had one as well, but as it is, Charles was the only one in the family to get that. I actually served with Stephen briefly in the Mexican-American war and Joseph Sanders, his commanding officer from the 2nd Cavalry, as well."

He turned to Chuck "Marshal Casey was also a Captain and a Brevet Colonel, actually, Charles. He was originally Cavalry, like you were."

John was shaking his head in disbelief, but then he put two and two together and said "So your father was the Bartowski Gunsmith?" (He'd had a look at Chuck's carbine last night too.)

Uncle Sam started to nod his head but Sarah said "No."

They both looked at her, so she pointed her finger at Chuck and said "He is."

That made the two men turn to look at Chuck with wide eyes, and Uncle Sam asked "From the start?"

When Chuck nodded, uncomfortable with the attention, Uncle Sam called someone in and requested something in a whisper. Sarah was pretty sure what it would be, so she smiled when the man brought back Uncle Sam's two prized Bartowski rifles. Uncle Sam thanked the man and waved him out, then asked Chuck what he could tell him about them.

None of them were really surprised when he told him the names of the two men who'd commissioned the rifles, when that was, and what the requirements given had been.

That led to a request from Uncle Sam to see the carbines they'd brought, and especially Chuck's. Looking it over, the two men were fascinated. When John commented that he'd really done a lot of modifications to the LeMat, Sarah went to respond, but Chuck shook his head slightly, Uncle Sam missed that, but Sarah and John didn't, and the looks he was getting from them said that he'd be explaining this later.

Uncle Sam was the next one who put him on the spot though, as he extracted one of the shells and looked at it, had another good look over Chuck's carbine, then turned to him. "This isn't a new rifle."

Chuck shook his head "No Sir, I built it over a year ago."

Uncle Sam held up the cartridge in his hand "How, when the Springfield Armory has only started releasing this ammunition and building the weapons that use it in the last six months?""

"If you check with the Armory, Sir, you'll find that they sometimes send things out to Bartowski Guns for comment, one of those things was an early test batch of the .46 Centrefire ammunition, I saw possibilities in it so I built this up to use it."

"Have you made any more of these? I'd like to add one to my collection."

Chuck shook his head "I'm afraid not Mister President, the limitations of the LeMat design are too much, this one works well enough for my usage, but it wasn't really viable to make more."

Sarah and Tom were staring at Chuck now, and John decided to diffuse the situation by saying. "I'd like to get Colonel Barton on the range to see how much work he needs Sir, is there anything else that we need to do here?"

The President shook his head. "No, John, I should be getting on with my other duties as well, we'll see you all for dinner tonight."

With that they left, and Sarah angrily dragged Chuck into the first empty room she found "Why did you lie to Uncle Sam?"

"I created these for my own use, only. While I may not hate everything to do with war as much as my father did, I won't see my creations used for widespread killing, I'll destroy them all before I allow that to happen! I never should have taken it in there out of its case. I slipped up because I was so tired after the fight in that town and driving the train here, and I'd kept the carbine with me in the loco when we brought the train in."

Her anger had been fading rapidly as he explained, and she nodded when he finished, saying "I'm sorry", and moving in to hug him.

John asked at that point, waving to the carbine, "So that isn't a heavily modified LeMat?"

Chuck shook his head "No, it's my design."

Sarah drew one of her .46s and held it out to John, saying "like these."

John went through the motions with it, much as Sarah had, and handed it back with a thoughtful expression, saying "Shall we go to the range then?"

* * *

All four of them went to the range, as Tom wanted to see how these Bartowski weapons he'd heard of compared to what the Army could supply as well. He used the excuse that he hadn't been released from his assignment to safeguard Chuck and Sarah, so it was still his duty to do so. Sarah and Chuck laughed at him at that, as no-one bought his excuse, they all knew that he just wanted to come along.

On the way over, Chuck asked Sam "How is it that the President seems to know you Tom?"

"Well, for a start, he knows my father from the war, he was one of the ones who supported Dad when they tried to cashier, and perhaps execute, him for disobeying orders in the face of the enemy."

That got him surprised and questioning looks from them all, so he had to explain.

"My father was the Captain of a steam frigate, and his frigate and a number of other warships had been ordered into an un-winnable battle by some glory hound Admiral who saw a major victory there as being his ticket to the Presidency, damn the losses. My father refused to waste his ship and crew on that type of insanity, and held his ship back. Inevitably, we lost the battle, along with every one of our ships that did engage, either sunk or captured."

"The Admiral and his influential friends tried to lay the blame of that loss on my father, and used that to have him charged as a senior officer with refusing orders in the face of the enemy, which can mean the firing squad. Most of the officers on the panel though, including General Grant, could see the facts of the matter and knew that my father's actions had, in fact, saved us a ship and crew which would have been undoubtedly lost otherwise, but the Admiral had too many powerful friends to let Dad off without any repercussions. As a result, he was demoted to Commander and sent as far away from that Admiral as possible, commanding a Kansas class gunboat down south."

"He and his gunboat were quite effective in their duties though, and his record was largely cleared by the end of the war. Then, just before the war ended, they were in a battle with the Confederates, and they were hit by a Confederate barrage that all but destroyed his gunboat. He lost his leg and most of his crew, and the gunboat was taking on water, but he and Scottie" ("His ship's engineer", he added at the confused looks he was getting) "managed to use her to ram and sink the flagship of the Confederate forces there."

"They were plucked out of the water by our people and brought home, and Dad was reinstated as Captain and made a Brevet Commodore, with the Medal of Honor, for his actions before he was discharged for medical reasons. Scottie was made a Brevet Commander, the highest rank an engineering officer had ever attained, for his part in that action."

"General Grant visited Dad in hospital quite a bit and did what he could for him" (Chuck nodded and said "He's good like that!") "And they've kept in touch since then."

"Aside from that." (he glanced at Chuck) "I was also promoted to Captain after Cripple Creek, because no matter how much I tried to tell them that that the credit was all Chuck's, they insisted on rewarding me for what happened. After President Grant took office, he had me assigned to his office to command the military groups used to support unconventional actions such as Secret Service operations and the like. So I've basically been a military commander at the President's direct orders."

Sarah looked confused at that, and asked "If Uncle Sam knew that he'd be sending you, why didn't he tell me?"

"Because he didn't know for sure, I was on another operation up in New York with my core team.." He looked at Chuck "You know half of them Chuck because they were at Cripple Creek, Hank, Bill, Ben, Weed, Jerry and the others." Chuck nodded, as he'd caught up with most of them on the train, or at home. "So we had to get back to Washington that night, and they didn't know whether we'd make it in time. That was why we didn't have a chance to properly vet those other men who were brought in to make up the rest of the company. Some, like Andy, we knew from previous operations where we worked with them, but the others we'd never seen before."

The other three nodded when he finished, and they were quiet the rest of the way to the gun range.

* * *

At the range, John was a little surprised to see that Chuck (and Sarah and Tom as well) easily rated as a sharpshooter with both pistol and rifle when using his weapons. He made them run through the course again with standard issue weapons to see whether it was the weapons, but while the results weren't as impressive as they'd achieved with his weapons, they still rated at that level.

John requested permission to try the weapons, to see just how much of that edge Chuck's creations were responsible for, and when Chuck agreed, ran the course with them himself. He could see that there was a definite advantage with them, especially his carbine, as they offered more firepower and better handling than most other comparable weapons (and were more powerful with better accuracy to boot), but they needed a competent shootist to really perform.

As John's speciality was as a sniper, he got the longer ranges set up, and ran through the targets with both conventional sniper rifles and Chuck's carbine. (He also made Chuck, Sarah and Sam go through the targets) The results here surprised him, as Chuck's carbine was more than a match for over half of the Army sniper rifles they tried. Indeed, the only one that had a noticeable edge over it was his own .44-77 Sharps, which had been hand built for him by Sharps to his specific requirements.

Sarah smiled as she was watching Chuck examine John's Sharps, as she could almost see the gears turning in his head, and knew that he was incorporating the features of this into some new design.

Considering what he'd come up with so far, she couldn't wait to see what this would be!

She went over to sit with him, and he looked up with a smile, leaning over to kiss her. She waved at the Sharps, asking "So what are you designing off this?"

He gave her a 'Who, me?' look and she laughed. He smiled and said "Oh, something similar, except I'll use the carbine's cylinder, shotgun barrel and action, and a much more powerful cartridge."

She raised her eyebrows at that "Much more powerful cartridge? Where are you going to get that?"

"From Sharps, actually, someone there sent me a batch of ammunition they started to work on but put aside because they don't think that there was a market for it, given that they already have these forty four seventy seven cartridges and their ilk. One of them was a forty five shell that will hold a hundred and twenty grains of powder, the forty six eighty only has two thirds that capacity, and that is easily a match for the forty four seventy seven this uses."

Sarah glanced up to see Uncle John standing there with a look of longing on his face as he listened, and she laughed.

Chuck looked at her in confusion and she waved up at Uncle John, saying "He's going to want one when you build it!"

Chuck glanced up at the man quickly and nodded, murmuring. "If I do."

* * *

One thing did come from their day at the range, they realised that none of them in their new team were really used to working as part of a team. Sarah and John had both worked with other agents and the like for big operations (not that that had gone too well for Sarah most of the time), but most of their time as spies and assassins had been solitary. Even for Chuck, most of his work, both as a scout and engineer in the Army, and as a civilian engineer and gunsmith, had been solitary. This was obviously something that they'd have to work on.

Sarah had connections to both of the men, but she hadn't really worked with either of them yet, if anything she'd worked more with Chuck than she had with Uncle John, for all her history with Uncle John. She did know that the connection that she had with Chuck definitely helped them to mesh in action though, as they'd already proven that.

John could see that he had a long way to go to make things good with Charles, he wanted to, but he didn't really know how. He had enormous respect for this young man, but he believed that he, in turn, just regarded him as the man who had tried to kill him.

He wasn't entirely wrong in this belief, Chuck wanted to get along with the man for Sarah's sake, but at the moment whenever he saw him, he was made to remember the pain and despair he'd felt at Cripple Creek and as he tried to recover from his wounds afterwards. That was, in part, what made Chuck refer to John only as 'Marshal' when he addressed him.

This form of address was going to get them into trouble around others though, so John sat Chuck and Sarah down to have a discussion on what they were to call each other.

Sarah was the simplest here, because she was Sarah to both of them (even though few knew what her real name was), and what to call them was easy for her, too, as it was Chuck and Uncle John for her.

It was how they were to address each other which was the problem. Sarah tried to offer suggestions that would be acceptable to them. Chuck agreed easily enough to having John calling him Charles, or Chuck, but they both baulked at her insistence that he should call John 'Uncle John', as she did. This made her think on her feet, as it were, and how she approached it was to build their working identities, then and there.

She and Chuck were betrothed (as they were) and John was her Uncle who was travelling with her, as it was improper for a young lady to be travelling unattended where they came from. This was her argument for Chuck to call John 'Uncle John', as he would be part of the family soon, so it was only right that he do so.

John could see Chuck buckling, even though he clearly didn't want to, because the boy really couldn't say 'no' to her, so he tried to help the process along by saying that that story would be more believable than other stories that they might come up with. It didn't take Chuck long to give in to the inevitable and agree to go along.

The story that they agreed to use in Boston was close to what Sarah and Chuck had mapped out before they left. He'd met her family in the war, he and their eldest daughter, Sarah, had fallen in love, and he'd promised to return after the war, but he hadn't been able to contact her and thought she'd moved on. Sarah's entire family had fallen on hard times after the war, and she'd been too proud to tell him, but when her father had become ill, Sarah had come to Boston, alone, to determine whether their feelings for one another were still strong and seek Chuck's help, only to find that his parents had just been killed. She'd stayed on to help Chuck and Ellie with the funeral, but then she had one of her uncles track her down to tell her that her own father had also died, so she had to go home for his funeral, and Chuck accompanied her to provide support to her, and her family.

When they returned to Boston, John would be accompanying them as Sarah's uncle to keep things seemly, and Chuck would be going to Devon with the story that he had to go away for some time to set up the technology that his betrothed's family's plantations needed if they were to avoid losing them, and the only way that he could leave Ellie behind would be if she was married, protected, and secure. If she wasn't safely married to Devon, she would have to come South with him and Sarah for as long as it took to establish the technology to make Sarah's family's plantations viable.

While that sounded solid, Chuck still had a concern. "But what about Woody and Honey? They looked down on us even before mother and father were killed, I'm sure they'll try to push Devon into taking a more suitable match."

Sarah looked thoughtful for a moment and then smiled at him. "Not if they have bigger things to worry about, we can bring the proceedings against Woody for treason forward and move to seize his property."

Chuck looked shocked at the idea, but then he smiled and asked "Have I told my frighteningly devious fiancé how much I love her today?"

That got him a hug and a searing kiss from Sarah, which was interrupted by John clearing his throat.

This irked Sarah, so she rounded on him " ** _What_ _Uncle John?_** "

He grumbled that it wasn't proper, to be carrying on like that.

"Why? We're betrothed!" (Though a frown did cross her face as she remembered that Chuck still hadn't met Aunt Julia yet.)

"But you're not _wed_! There are things that a young lady doesn't do before she's wed, and this is one of them!"

Sarah said something very unladylike at that and exclaimed "Ugh! I wish that we were already married so we could make all of this idiocy go away!"

She saw Chuck freeze out of the corner of her eye (and felt it as well, as she still had her arms about him) and he asked "Well why don't we get married then?"

She looked at him, as did John, and she said "What are you thinking Chuck?"

"Look, we've talked through the story we were going to use explain our leaving and prompt Devon into proposing, based on what you put together back home. We fell in love when I met you in the war and I promised to return, but you were too proud to tell me when your family fell on hard times, so I didn't hear from you and presumed that you'd moved on, until your father fell ill and you were desperate enough to come north, alone, to ask me for my help."

"Then your Uncle Tom came to tell you that your father had died and you had to do back for the funeral, and I went with you to give you support. We were going to go back, with Uncle John to keep things seemly this time, and tell everyone that I was going down south to set up the technology for my betrothed's family's plantations that they needed to make them viable. Of course, Ellie couldn't stay there without us, so she'd have to come with us, unless she was properly married and had a husband to look after her."

She couldn't work out why he was going over this again. "Yes? What's the problem with that?"

"That story wouldn't work, because just as you were too proud to tell me that your family was struggling before, there's no way your family would accept the help of anyone who wasn't family to get them out of trouble, the family pride just wouldn't let them! So, you see, the only way for this to work is if we were to go down there as husband and wife."

Sarah looked from Chuck to Uncle John, wondering whether Chuck was right about this. She was surprised to see Uncle John nodding.

"You're right son, there's no way that a proud southern family would let themselves be saved by an outsider, as that would shame the family."

"But if I were married to Sarah.."

John nodded again "Then you'd _be_ family, so it would be quite acceptable."

Chuck looked a question at Sarah, and she laughed "Yes! Of course, yes!"

The kiss they shared then didn't appear to merit a comment from Uncle John.

When they came up for air, Chuck started making plans.

"Tom left a squad in Boston to watch over Ellie, we can telegraph them, and her, to come down to the plantation for the wedding. She can get on the train straight away, with her secret guards, and Tom, as Sarah's uncle who she has already met, can meet her in New York to escort her the rest of the way."

Sarah smiled at him "That just leaves Uncle Sam."

Chuck nodded, and stood to go and seek an audience with the President to get his permission to marry his ward, and with that send the telegraphs off to Ellie and her guard detail to get them on the first train from Boston.

* * *

There was little difficulty in getting the President's blessing, as he was in truth worried that his wayward unofficial ward would cause a scandal for the family by refusing to wait until they were wed to openly pursue their relationship. The primary difficulty would be in convincing the first lady, and Nellie, that their wedding must remain a secret, as Sarah's function and connections to the first family could not be revealed to anyone else. The President arranged for all the telegrams to be sent and travel arrangements made before Chuck left his office.

By the time that Ellie arrived, two and a half days later, the plans were all in place. The wedding would be attended by little more than the first family and Tom's people. Ellie and Nellie would be standing with Sarah, Tom and Weed would be standing with Chuck, and President Grant would be giving Sarah away.

Chuck asked Sarah if she wanted anyone else there, but she'd shaken her head, other than the people here, she'd only ever had her grandparents in Mobile and a few people in New Orleans who had looked after her when she was a girl, and she didn't know whether any of them were even alive, as she hadn't been able to find them when she'd been down there a few years ago. There were a few women in the Secret Service that she considered friends of a sort, but she had no idea where any of them may be at the moment either.

Aunt Julia had had her seamstress make up Sarah's wedding dress, along with the other girls' dresses (Sarah had a good enough eye to get Ellie's dress close to what it should be). Arrangements had been made for the wedding to be in the private chapel on the farm of one of Uncle Sam's (and Chuck's father's) friends, General Cranston, which was just out of Washington

* * *

As well as the wedding plans, they were also finalising the plans on how the team was to proceed, as Uncle Sam had ordered that Tom and his core team of thirty two troopers would be going to Boston to provide security and support for the team.

At Tom's suggestion, Andy was added to their team, and he'd also been promoted to Captain, to give him the authority he'd need to deal with other military personnel if required. This brought Tom's team up to thirty four men in total.

The size of their team would add some difficulties to the logistics, as they'd have to be spread across at least eight lodging houses if they were to avoid attracting too much attention (as larger groups of men arriving together would be likely to do). Spreading across the lodging houses that way was a logical step for this team though, as the team was actually made up of eight groups of four, each led by a sergeant. (Most of the team were corporals or above, as every one of them had been hand picked by Tom and Hank.)

This structure had been implemented over time in the team and was a proven practice, as it allowed them to both cover more targets, and be more unobtrusive on operations (for a military group, they spent very little time in uniform, as they were generally playing civilians while on operations, to avoid attracting attention).

* * *

When Ellie and her escorts' train came in, Chuck, Sarah, John and Andy met them at the station with a steam carriage, along with an steam wagon for their guards. The way that Sarah and Ellie greeted each other warmed Chuck's heart, because it was as though they were already sisters.

They quickly had their luggage loaded into the carriage, said goodbye to the team and headed back to the President's House, pointing out the sights along the way.

They did have one stop along the way, at the seamstress's for the final fitting of Ellie's and Sarah's dresses. Sarah's dress was essentially completed, they merely had to finish the seams once they confirmed that everything was right, it was Ellie's dress that was the primary focus for this visit.

When Ellie saw her dress, she embraced Sarah, in tears, because it was exquisite! Sarah had chosen the cut and colour to perfectly complement Ellie's beauty, and as the seamstress was surprised to find when she put it on for the fitting, Sarah's eye had also been good enough that only very minor adjustments were needed for it to fit.

With the dresses out of the way, they went on to the President's House.

* * *

Chuck had procured a drawing board, and in his free time (usually at night as that was the only time he was separated from Sarah), he drew up the designs for the rifle that he'd thought up at the rifle range.

This design process actually helped him and John build a bond, as they spent quite a bit of time discussing the elements that made for a superior long range target or sniper rifle. This gave them a common ground to engage each other that they hadn't had before.

John made some comments which changed the direction of the design, such as when he pointed out that that the long rifles were generally very heavy and unwieldy. This sent Chuck down a different thought path which had him utilising lighter barrels, joined with a web such as double barrelled shotguns used to give it the integrity and resistance to warping it needed, but with less weight.

Another musing thought from him that it would be good to have a .46-80 version as well as the .45-120, in the event that the .45-120 ammunition wasn't available led in turn to drawing up a .46 Centrefire cylinder to allow for the different rounds. The fact that the .45-120 and .46 Centrefire rounds used the same bullet size made this a simple changeover.

Both of these changes also found their way into a revision of the carbine design, though the second cylinder for the carbine was for the .46 Rimfire shells and associated parts, in case they ran out of the .46 Centrefire ammunition. That thinking led to plans to make up .38 and .46 Rimfire cylinders etc for the 5 and 6 shot revolvers as well, to assure the ammunition supply.

Again, the .38 and .46 Centrefire and Rimfire rounds used the same bullet size so they were interchangeable in the guns, but that had been by design with the .38 and .46 Centrefire ammunition to allow existing .38 and .46 Rimfire guns to be easily converted.

Initially John's intention here had been to keep Chuck occupied on these matters at night, to prevent him and Sarah from breaching the limits of propriety before they were wed, but he soon found that he was enjoying their discussions immensely, and he was learning a lot about firearms from Chuck as well.

While they were doing this, Chuck sent specifications and orders out to the best manufacturers of telescopic rifle sights for high powered optical sights. These initial orders were only for one sight from each manufacturer, however he indicated that orders for up to a dozen or more may be forthcoming for the most suitable.

The question of the .45-120 Sharps ammunition availability that John raised had Chuck contacting Sharps to order sufficient supplies of suitable cartridge brass to make up enough .45-100, 110 or 120 ammunition to meet their needs for the foreseeable future (once he had the brass, he could make up the dies to form the shells). He also made arrangements for bulk supplies of the .46 and .38 Centrefire ammunition and brass, as from their experiences to date, they would be likely to be going through a lot of it.

* * *

When their wedding day arrived, it was a beautiful day and everything was in place. Chuck, Ellie, Tom, Weed and John rode to General Cranston's estate in one steam carriage, with Sarah, Uncle Sam, Aunt Julia, Nellie, Jesse and Andy (who was actually Aunt Julia's cousin's son) in another, the 'boys' drove the two carriages and Tom's other troopers escorted both carriages.

While small and simple, their wedding was beautiful, and they had a photographer to commemorate the day. Sharing the day with their families and just about everyone who was important to them was enough to make it perfect for Sarah and Chuck.

After the wedding, they went back to the President's House for a dinner, and as the dinner drew to a close, they announced their plans to return to Boston the following day. Aunt Julia and Nellie were upset, but they knew what Sarah did (not the details, but enough to know that it was dangerous), and they knew she could never stay in their world for too long.

Aunt Julia turned to Chuck, asking "You'll keep our girl safe Charles?" and Chuck nodded, saying "As much as she'll let me Ma'am."

That got a laugh from her, as she knew full well how headstrong Sarah was, and that she'd never let any man wrap her up in cotton wool, not even one she loved as much as she obviously did Chuck. She embraced him and kissed him on the cheek, making him promise to get Sarah back to visit more often, and then went to distract Nellie when Sarah and Chuck went off to have their wedding night together, as she certainly wasn't ready for Nellie to know about THAT yet.

In the morning, there were teary goodbyes all round (Sarah was fairly sure she even saw a tear in Uncle Sam's eye) before their carriages departed for the station.


	6. Plans, Confrontations and Relocations

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

Tom's team was loading everything onto the two Pullman Hotel cars and baggage car that Chuck had arranged for as they arrived, but something caught Chuck's eye that made him grab Tom's arm to pull him out of earshot of the others.

"Really Tom? The Gatling gun? I thought that was supposed to be turned in with the Army rifles? What else have you brought along, a cannon?"

Tom looked around to see who was about before he answered.

"Someone left it off the lists of what was recovered, and as we've already found out, being around you can be a dangerous business Chuck, so I decided that it wouldn't hurt to have it along."

At that Sarah appeared at Chuck's side as if by magic and she asked. "What are you two talking about?"

"Chuck was taking me to task for bringing the Gatling gun."

" _ **WHAT?**_ "

Tom shrugged "It was held back when we submitted what had been recovered in the town, and given the type of forces that are coming after us now, I thought that it could be helpful to have something to even the odds."

Sarah just looked at him in disbelief, and that look moved to Chuck when he added "He does have a point actually, especially as we only have a third the numbers we had at the ambush."

"Did you fall out of bed and hit your head when I wasn't looking Chuck? You do know what a bad idea this is, really, don't you?"

Chuck sighed "Probably, but they can't take it back now. We just have to go along with it. And the fact remains that Tom does have a point, if we go up against superior numbers, we may just need that edge."

Sarah nodded resignedly and allowed Chuck to turn her towards the Hotel Car, only stopping briefly to look back and fix Tom with a baleful glare, saying "This isn't over Tom!" before she let Chuck lead her away.

* * *

Luckily, the opulence of the Hotel cars distracted her, and soon they were settled into one of the drawing rooms on one car, with Ellie in the other, next to them.

With her occupation, Sarah was used to luxurious hotels and mansions, but she had never travelled like this before, this was certainly the way to travel!

Taking in the expensive panelling and carpets though, something occurred to Sarah, and she turned to Chuck to ask quietly. "How can we afford this Chuck? I know that you have paid for this."

Chuck drew her closer to quietly tell her about the chest of gold, jewels and money that was locked up in the gun safe back home.

She looked at him, wide eyed, at that and asked "Is it safe there?"

Chuck smiled at that "You've seen that gun safe Sarah, you've seen how it's constructed. That was the biggest and strongest safe I could afford at the time, and I replaced the locks with ones of my own devising once I had it there. It's also bolted to the floor and walls of the workroom. I'd say that the trunk is as safe as it can be at the moment."

When she thought on that she realised that he was correct and nodded, relieved.

Thinking that as long as her mind was focused on this, it wasn't on Tom's gaffe, Chuck went on.

"Actually, what's in that trunk is only tiny fraction of the Daemon's fortune, most of those trunks are full of ledgers and books that record all the Daemon's holdings. If we could just organise a way to get them transferred over to our control, we'd have the money to do whatever we needed."

That caught her attention, as she remembered the strange journals and ledgers in the trunks at Chuck's house, and from that point, they spent most of the train trip to Boston planning out how to transfer all of the Daemon's assets over to Chuck, or rather to a series of holding companies that would mask the connections between him and the money.

When their meals were delivered and they stopped to eat, looking out to watch the countryside going by, Sarah smiled at Chuck, yes, this was indeed the way to travel!

Sarah asked Chuck whether he had any preferences as to what to name the main company they'd have to create, but after giving the matter some thought, he just said "Memphis".

This of course prompted the question "What is so important in Tennessee Chuck? I don't recall you ever saying anything about spending time there?"

Chuck laughed "Sorry my love, no, not Memphis Tennessee, Memphis Egypt, that is where it kept going back to time and again. That's perfect though, because everyone else will presume the same thing as well."

Sarah nodded. "We can't just use 'Memphis' though, we will have to make it sound believable as a business enterprise."

"How about 'Memphis Trading Company'? That has the ring of the sort of company that would be pushing money around doesn't it?"

She grinned "It does indeed! That can be our core company and we can form up the rest under it. Now of course, as well as your own name, or rather names as we'll use both Bartowski and Barton, we'll need other names for the purpose of setting up accounts to pay the money through to, the more the better so as to allow us to spread the money around and avoid attracting too much attention to the individuals that hold it."

"We'll need to create the identities to go with all of them as well, strong enough to bear up to investigation, as people will be looking into them when the money starts accumulating. We're also going to need something else, though, we're going to need our own law firm if we we're going to process piles of holdings of the like of what you're talking about."

Chuck laughed "Apparently I married far more than I realised in you my love, you're amazing! How can you know about these things?"

Sarah smiled at him "Have you forgotten that my father was a confidence man Chuck? He didn't have the head for it though, and even before Mama died I was organising things for him. Also, those people in New Orleans I mentioned, the ones who looked after me?" (Chuck nodded) "They were also in the game, and they were far more accomplished than my father was. We were never there for more than a month or two at a time before they'd run him out of town again because his fast and loose dealings were jeopardising their own dealings and lives, but while I was there, they taught me quite a bit about the tricks of the trade, and about other business matters as well."

Sarah frowned as she thought about the law firm "Sam Walton can't be the principal for the law firm though, as no-one would take it seriously if it were fronted by a young inexperienced lawyer."

Chuck interjected "I can provide you with the names of several lawyers that the Daemon took, but were never found and are therefore still alive according to all the records."

Sarah nodded, looking interested. "That might work, who do you have?"

They spent some time discussing the lawyers' identities that Chuck could recall, eventually agreeing on three successful, but rarely seen lawyers with relatively good reputations (in public and legal circles at least, they'd had some unsavoury tastes which served to lessen their feelings of guilt about using the men's names in this way) and no appreciable family, business or social ties in New York. These three would be the primary partners, so their firm would be Tolbert, Ives and Jager, with young Samuel Walton as the junior partner who did much of the running around.

New York was the most logical place to locate the law firm, as it was at the hub of big business dealings, as well as the fact that Sarah, or rather Sam, knew a number of reasonably trustworthy lawyers from Colombia and the New York courts, so most of the working lawyers that she knew were based there.

This planning kept the two them occupied for much of the way back to Boston.

* * *

Another thing that took up their time was filling Ellie in on their plan to ensure that Woody and Honey wouldn't interfere with Devon marrying her. Ellie was concerned at first when they told her the plan, but then she shrugged, Chuck had told her about the investigations into Woody when they first saw Sarah, and truth be told, that pair deserved whatever came down on them.

Her only question was how they were going to arrange for the necessary court orders, but Sarah laughed, asking "Have you forgotten about Sam Walton Ellie?" Ellie's laughter joined her's then.

The only person who was looking confused at that was Casey, and Sarah apologised and told him how she'd gotten her law degrees from Columbia, Magna Cum Laude no less, and was admitted the bar in New York under the name of Samuel Walton because they didn't allow girls to study or practice law.

Casey snorted at that, and told Chuck. "You'll have a task in front of you to tame this one son."

Chuck just smiled at Sarah "I don't think she'll ever be tamed John, but that's fine with me, I love her quite the way she is."

That got him a kiss from his wife, a laugh from Ellie and a gagging noise from Casey.

When the kiss finished, Sarah frowned at Casey and said "Uncle John, behave! You wanted him to make an honest woman out of me, and now he has!"

Casey groaned at that "Do you _have_ to keep calling me that?"

"Actually, I do, because this is the cover that we'll be living until we finish this, so you need to get used to it. And as you've said yourself, it's not too far from the truth anyway."

He nodded in resignation at that, and Chuck went back to filling in Ellie on the plans.

"When Sarah, or rather Sam, files the paperwork against Woody, I'll explain to Devon that if he doesn't marry you before we go back down South, you'll have to come with us so we can make sure that you're safe. I'll also let it slip that it could be years before we will be able to return. I'm banking on him proposing on the spot, and as soon as he does, we'll take down the Bartowski Engineering signs and start converting the rooms downstairs into the doctors' rooms for the two of you to use for your practice. I'll just leave the workroom, forge and storeroom out the back for the engineering business."

"And what if he doesn't propose, what do I do then?"

"If he doesn't I'll make sure that he goes down with his family, and we'll get you located somewhere that you'll be safe, and not alone."

"No! If there's nothing for me there, I want to come with you!"

"Ellie, no, it's too dangerous…"

Sarah stopped him there, she'd seen the strength that was in her sister-in-law, and knew that she deserved the right to make her own decision.

"You know that there will be danger and hardships if you come with us Ellie, but have you considered just how much there will be?"

Ellie nodded. "I realise that I don't know enough about what it's like out there to fully understand everything that we will face, but I have an idea, and I would prefer to be with the only family I have left."

"Can you ride a horse, shoot a gun? You will have to do those things and more if you come with us."

Ellie nodded again "I'll need more practice, I know, but yes, I can do those things, and I will do what I have to to stay with my family."

Chuck reached across to embrace her. "Ellie, I'm sorry, I didn't think of that, I only thought to keep you safe."

"Will you drop these plans against the Woodcombs and just let me come with you? Devon is no replacement for my family, he's weak and his family will always rule his life. If Mama and Papa, and you, were there to give my life substance, I may have been happy with him, but I have no wish to live my life at the whims of the Woodcombs."

Chuck was conflicted, on one hand he wanted her to be happy, and he didn't want to leave her, but he wanted her to be safe, and going with them would not be safe.

Sarah put her hand on his arm to still the conflicting thoughts swirling about in his head.

"Ellie, are you sure about this, don't you think that you would be better off taking the time to think this through before you make a decision of this magnitude?"

Ellie gave her a look that reminded Chuck of their mother. "Am I sure that I don't want to be separated from the only family I have left, and that includes you by the way? Yes! Am I absolutely certain about everything else? No. Look, why don't you drop the plans you have to scuttle Woody and push Devon into proposing. We will tell them that you're taking me with you to look after me, if Devon is the man I need him to be he will propose on his own and won't let his family interfere with our marriage, if he isn't then there's nothing here for me."

She then fixed Sarah with a look. "This plan to take down Woody would weaken your case against him and jeopardise your being able to bring him to justice anyway, wouldn't it?"

Sarah nodded ruefully, even more impressed with her sister-in-law now, Chuck hadn't picked up on that, wrapped up as he'd been in his concerns for Ellie. "Yes, it would."

Ellie nodded. "Good, then we can handle it that way. In the meantime, Sarah, will you teach me to shoot, and ride, and do all the other things I need to know how to do better?"

Sarah grinned at her, Ellie and her brother were two of a kind. "I most certainly will!"

Ellie looked at Chuck, and when he nodded with a smile, she reached over to hug them both.

Once they were home in Boston, though, there was something else that had to be done, they had to tell both Ellie and the others about things that they weren't going to want to accept.

Sarah had forgiven Tom by the time they got back to Boston, which was fortuitous, as they needed him to lead off with the first of the stories that needed to be told.

* * *

Tom's story about Cripple Creek was more detailed than John's had been, and it started earlier as well.

"Our Company had a new commanding officer at Cripple Creek, as we'd just lost the Colonel and most of the Regiment in that battle the previous month. The Major who took over the Company was a fool, puffed up with his own importance. He was affronted by the fact that we didn't have a 'real' engineer, such as an officer of his standing rated in his view, and he made no bones about letting everyone know that he regarded Chuck as a sham. He often described Chuck as being scarcely out of short pants without the proper qualifications or experience to do the job, while Chuck was standing right there in front of him. The other three Lieutenants were too busy trying to curry favour with him to speak out against this, so I earned the Major's ire because I tried to point out the qualifications and accomplishments by which Chuck had earned his place to him."

"When we arrived at Cripple Creek, Chuck did his job with his usual skill and efficiency, but when he tried to advise the Major of where we should set up position and why, the Major just ignored what he told him, saying that he was a West Point graduate with twenty years of experience in the Army, and he wouldn't have some snot nosed boy trying to tell him how to do his job. He dismissed him and ordered the men to set up position in the worst possible location, as the Confederates proved to us soon enough when they arrived."

"It was obvious from the start that they had vastly superior numbers, and they quickly set up on higher ground to begin firing down on us. Our men were mostly hiding in rifle pits or behind whatever cover they could find, because if anyone put his head up, he'd most likely get shot. The Major of course was hiding in the deepest hole he could find, sending runners to pass his stupid orders on, but most of them got shot."

"Then the Bear started. We just knew it was him, because we'd all heard the stories about this legendary Confederate sniper who never missed. The way it was told, if you ended up in his sights, you were dead! The other Lieutenants went down first, then our doctor, because the Major had insisted that he must wear his _proper_ uniform." (John looked up with pain in his eyes at that, as he hadn't realised he'd shot a doctor) "And then the Major was shot when he decided to stand up and set an example for the men. I stupidly tried to check to see if the old fool was alive, and I got shot too, not fatally, obviously."

"I was laying in a rifle pit, shot and bleeding and scared that I was going to die, when I heard that the Sergeants had been shot too, and that was when about half the men threw down their guns and tried to run. They didn't get far before most of them were mowed down in the hail of bullets that came down on them."

"I was sure that it was all over then, that they'd just come in and kill the rest of us, but then I heard someone giving orders, it was Chuck. I could hear him moving about, quietening the men down and getting them organised. He soon had our best shots targeting the areas which represented the most risk to us, using the Spencers and .52-70 Sharps so that they had the range to reach the Rebs and the ability keep firing as long as they needed to."

"We had plenty of Spencer, Sharps and Henry cartridge rifles because that and a few Yellow Boys was pretty much all we carried after our Regiment got all but wiped out in that last battle. We'd collected the best of the weapons from our fallen and threw away the issued cap and ball carbines and revolvers after the battle, so most of us had at least two cartridge revolvers and long arms each. The men we had left at that point had been the among the best in the Regiment, and most of those sharpshooters are in my team now."

"Chuck directed the other men to maintain enough cover fire on those areas that had been firing on us to make them keep their heads down while others went out to collect any weapons, ammunition, food and water that they could find from the bodies, and bring back anyone they found alive. He told them to use the Henries so they didn't waste the ammunition that our sharpshooters were using. That was how I survived, as the men who found me patched me up and stopped the bleeding."

"When they'd recovered any survivors and had all the weapons, ammunition and the like that they could find, Chuck told us that we needed to move, because the position we were in was indefensible. Most of them said that there was no way that they were going out there, but they came around when he explained his plan, that half would lay down covering fire while the others moved, then they'd cover for the first half while they in turn moved. He showed them where they needed to target with their covering fire, and had the sharpshooters still picking off targets where they could."

"We lost some men in that move, but it mostly went off as he told us. I and the other wounded were helped along as we ran for where he'd sent us, then we all set up and laid down covering fire for him and the rest to move. When we were where he had told the Major we needed to be up front, we dug in and started firing on the Confederates down in the railroad junction, while others were still targeting the Confederate forces opposing us. Anyone who couldn't shoot was reloading the Spencers and Henries for the others."

"We thought we might make it for the first time since the Confederates turned up, and then the Bear started targeting Chuck. I heard the men shouting that Chuck had been hit, and some of the men started to panic because he was the reason we were alive. Truth be told, I was feeling that way myself, but then we heard him giving orders again and settled down. Obviously the Bear had identified who it was who made us a problem for the Confederates, because he kept targeting Chuck. Every time we heard he was hit, we'd worry, then he'd start giving orders again, until the sixth time."

"Men went to check on him and reported that he was alive, but hurt bad. They'd patched him up as best they could but he really needed a doctor. The men started to fall apart again but I decided that I was damned, pardon my French ladies, if I was going to let everything he'd done go to waste, so told them to pipe down and do their duty like Chuck showed us. We managed to hold out for another three and a half hours or so until the relief column arrived and the Confederates took out for the hills, but by then we were down to less than a third of our original numbers, including the wounded."

"We got Chuck and the others who were seriously wounded off to the Depot Field Hospital in City Point as quick as we could, and we were praying that they could save him, but I had to stay to organise the hand over of the position. That's when a man came walking in. He was a big man, carrying a Sharps sniper rifle in his arms, he walked up to me where I was relinquishing control of the position to the Major who'd commanded the relief column and handed me that Sharps, saying. 'I've just killed the Hero of Cripple Creek for nothing, because you somehow managed to hold things together after he finally went down. I've always done my duty to the Confederacy, but I'm done now, I won't kill any more heroes like him for the petty schemes of men who aren't fit to clean their boots!' I had to convince that Major that the information the man carried was too valuable for us to have him shot on the spot as he was going to, for killing Union officers, and he was sent off to City Point for questioning."

Ellie was in tears at that point, whispering. "Why would anyone do such a thing?" but she froze as John answered. "Because it was my duty."

Chuck had to stop her from attacking John. When they'd managed to calm her down a little, Chuck convinced her to listen to what John had to say. John repeated the story he'd told in Uncle Sam's office, and Sarah repeated what she'd told Chuck later that night as well.

The looks that Ellie sent John's way were saying that it would be a long time before she forgave him for what he'd done, if ever, but she accepted that he had been doing his duty in war, and that Chuck had chosen to work with him, knowing all of this.

With that done, John, Tom, Andy, Hank and the others from Cripple Creek were confronted with Chuck's real secret, because things would be coming out soon and it was better to lay out the truth before they did. They had serious difficulty in accepting what they heard, because by any normal standards it was insane, but Chuck presented them with enough evidence to convince them of the truth of what he was telling them, and they slowly came around. Another thing that helped with this was that John and some of the others had come from families which as old as Chuck's mother's, and they'd been told such stories from their ancestors, which they now brought up as they listened to Chuck. In time, they all accepted what Chuck told them as true.

* * *

With that resolved, Sarah started making enquiries about suitable premises in New York to house the Tolbert, Ives and Jager and Memphis Trading offices and meet their other needs. Then she settled down to work on putting together the paperwork to create their law firm and register the Memphis Trading Company, along with the network of companies underneath it. She used the drafting table in Chuck's workroom as her desk for this, so that they were together as they worked on their various tasks.

While Sarah was working at creating their empire, Chuck got to work on finishing and delivering the last of the commission pieces that he had in his books, as well as building the weapons for their team.

There was no point in building any more of the LeMat carbines until he had built and proven the new design though, and all three of them wanted to test that rifle he'd thought up, so while he was progressing on building the other revolvers, carbines and derringers that they required, the new designs had priority.

He had gotten the new rifle and carbine built, but something else happened that took precedence over what he was working on.

* * *

Chuck had been working in his workroom out the back, so he hadn't seen Ellie come in after she'd been to see Devon, but when Sarah went upstairs to get them something to eat, she returned to tell him that he needed to go and talk to Ellie, because from the way she was bashing things about in the kitchen, her talk to Devon hadn't gone well.

Chuck asked "Did she tell you what happened?"

Sarah shook her head "No, and I didn't ask. I think she needs you, her little brother."

Chuck nodded, and kissed her before heading up to see Ellie.

He came back about half an hour later with a stormy countenance, Sarah wanted to ask what had happened, but decided to let him tell her in his own time. Chuck sat down and went to work without a word, until he suddenly flung the chisel in his hand across the room with such force that its tip was buried over an inch into the window frame.

"He told her that she couldn't expect him to wait for her if she chose to follow her brother off on some fool quest!"

Sarah slammed the file in her hand down on the bench as she jumped to her feet " _ **WHAT?**_ I'll…!" Chuck gently grabbed her hand as she started for the door.

"No, my love, she needs to do this herself, she doesn't want any of us to confront him until she has, and I've agreed."

Sarah was fit to explode, but she nodded, and came into his embrace. When she had calmed down enough, she looked up at him and said "OK. But we're not letting her go there alone!"

He smiled down at her "Of course not!" and kissed her.

As they weren't going to get any work done with this clouding their heads, they locked everything away in the gun safe and headed upstairs to see Ellie.

When they got to the kitchen, it was obvious that Ellie had been crying, and Sarah just went to her and pulled her into her arms. When Ellie had composed herself a little, Sarah looked at her and asked "So, when are we going to see this fool?"

Ellie darted a look at Chuck "What? I told Chuck..." but Sarah cut her off.

"Yes, we're going to let you confront him yourself, but you didn't really think we were about to let you go there alone, did you?"

"Well yes, I had, but obviously I wasn't thinking too clearly."

Sarah smiled "Obviously! Now, are you ready to get this out of the way, or do you need time to compose yourself?"

Ellie shook her head and squared her shoulders "No, the sooner done the better."

Sarah nodded "Well go clean your face and get dressed then, and we'll head over there."

At that point John came in (he was staying with them as Sarah's Uncle, and things had improved considerably between him and Ellie once she'd had time to consider the whole situation). He took one look at Ellie and asked what was wrong.

Sarah quickly explained what had happened and that they were going to the Woodcombs' for Ellie to confront Devon about it, while she and Chuck were going along for support.

John nodded, deeply troubled by this, and turned to ask Ellie if he may come along as well?

Ellie looked at him for a moment and nodded "I would like that, thank you, Uncle John."

That brought a smile from him and he embraced her (as he found that he quite liked Sarah and Ellie calling him that. It didn't sit well when Chuck did, but Chuck generally called him John, man to man), and then they all went to get ready to go to the Woodcomb residence.

Ellie was nervous on the walk over to the Woodcombs' on John's arm, but she stiffened her resolve as they arrived at their door. Ellie announced that she wished to speak to Devon, and they were directed to wait in a parlour. None of them were greatly surprised however that it was his parents, Woody and Honey, who entered, rather than Devon.

When they entered, his mother Honey demanded abruptly (to the point of outright rudeness). "Who are these people?"

Ellie bristled at that, but forced herself to reply politely "You know my brother Charles of course Missus Woodcomb, and you have met my sister-in-law Sarah..."

"I have done no such thing!"

Sarah interceded then "Well your husband certainly has, as he made a point of introducing himself to me at my husband's parents' funeral! And this is my Uncle John."

Woodie spoke up at that point "I thought that you were introduced as Charles' intended, rather than his wife?"

Honey snorted "Obviously he's gotten yet another girl pregnant, but he apparently couldn't get out of marry this one."

Sarah fixed her with a look that made her stumble back a few steps "Not that it's any of your business Missus Woodcomb, but my husband has not gotten me pregnant, nor had he gotten any other women pregnant before me, as that Roberts trollop's own father confirmed!"

She stopped and turned to look at Chuck "We must remember to inform Mister Roberts that he doesn't have to worry about killing Larkin now Charles, given that the deed's already been done."

Chuck just nodded with a grim smile.

Honey tried to regain control of the situation as she turned on Ellie again. "Be that as it may, what are you doing here girl? Is this another pathetic attempt to get your hooks into my son?"

Again, Ellie struggled to calm herself, and she could see that the others were having the same trouble.

"Au contraire Madame, I merely wished to inform him that he has failed the test of character, and request that he never attempt to contact me again. However, as he appears to lack the fortitude to face me, I would thank you to pass that message on to him."

Honey sneered at her "Oh please, cheap little strumpets like you have been chasing after him most of his life. I'm only surprised that he didn't tire of you and toss you aside years ago like all those others, you must have been really putting on a good performance for him to keep you around..."

Whatever else she may have said was stopped by the slap that Sarah dealt her. Ellie had been staring at the woman in shock, as she couldn't believe that she would actually say something like this to her, but Sarah had stormed across the room to strike her. That slap would have knocked her to the floor if she hadn't landed up against a chair back and clung on for dear life as Sarah railed at her.

"Don't you _**EVER**_ talk to my sister-in-law like that you hag! Do not think for a minute that she's anything like _you_! Oh yes, I know all about you, Honey Deveraux! No good southern woman would ever let her husband shame her by carrying on as blatantly as your's does, but everyone back home knows just what the Deveraux women are!"

Woody started forward, but was stopped by Chuck's chill voice "If you try to lay a hand on either my wife or my sister, you'll lose it, and much more besides!" At that Woody turned and scurried to the bell cord in the corner, and started yanking at it frantically.

In less than thirty seconds, eight big, burly thugs burst into the room. The looks they gave Sarah and Ellie made it clear what they intended to do to them once they'd dealt with the two men, and they obviously thought that with four to one odds, that shouldn't take long!

The look on Woody's face said that he intended to have his turn at that as well, first, of course! They missed his reaction though, because they were facing his thugs while he cowered in the corner behind them.

As had happened in the President's office, memories of Eastern fighting arts showed Chuck exactly what to do. The men facing them were taken aback when Sarah squared off against them with Chuck and John, but they shrugged, a few bruises or for that matter a broken limb wouldn't stop them their taking their pleasure from her.

When they engaged the three however, they found that the situation wasn't at all what they'd expected, though most of them were too dim to realise that at first. Chuck ripped through them like a tornado, leaving broken limbs and numerous other serious injuries in his wake.

While John and Sarah may not have had Chuck's wealth of knowledge of arcane fighting arts from around the world though, John had prodigious strength and was an extremely accomplished fighter in his own right. Furthermore, one of those who had looked after Sarah in New Orleans when she was a girl, Oncle Henri, had been the foremost Savate master in America, and he'd taught her everything he knew, so that she could protect herself. Sarah had soaked up what he'd taught her like a sponge, and had added to that with another nine years of training and experience since then, so few men could stand against her now!

Chuck took out four of the men before either Sarah or John had finished with their first, but the look Sarah shot him when he went for the last one on her side, just as she put her man down, made him smile and step back, leaving him for her to deal with. He glanced at John, but he had everything in hand there as well, so he turned to make sure that Ellie was all right, and was met by a strange sight, because Ellie was in the process of doing her best to kick Woody to death.

Apparently, as soon as they had engaged his thugs, Woody had grabbed Ellie, determined to get in first with her before his thugs had a chance. Unfortunately for him though, Sarah, Chuck and John had been teaching Ellie how to defend herself, and she'd broken his grip easily. With that, she'd turned to kick him fair in the stones, hard enough to make him collapse on the floor in agony.

She was so enraged at that point that she'd just kept kicking him as hard as she could, breaking several ribs, his cheekbone and nose, and inflicting a lot more damage besides, until Chuck gently drew her off.

When Sarah finished her second man off, she, too, looked around to ensure that Ellie was all right, and she smirked at the sight that greeted her. When she came over, she embraced Ellie, and then leaned down to ensure that Woody would hear her.

"If you are thinking of trying to lay charges for any of this Woodcomb, I'd think again, as no-one will ever believe that we would come into your home with the intention of attacking all your bully boys! Furthermore, any competent doctor will be able to determine that the marks on you have come from a woman's dainty boots, and I'm sure that Ellie would be quite happy to supply her boots to be matched up to those marks. Finally, if you try to send anyone after us, or anyone that we are connected to, I can assure you that anyone that you send will end up in a box, and then we will be coming for _you_!"

With that, she straightened up and linked arms with Ellie to lead her from the room. As they left the house, there were smiles on the faces of most of the staff, and they heard more than a few quiet 'Thank you's from them, so it appeared that some of them at least had had to endure abuse at the hands of Woody's thugs.

Once outside, Chuck stopped to confirm that Ellie was all right, and when she assured him that she was, linked arms with her and headed down the street. Sarah was walking arm in arm with Uncle John behind them.

Something occurred to Chuck along the way, and he looked back to ask Sarah. "Does the Deveraux family really have that bad a reputation?"

Sarah laughed "How am I to know Chuck? I wasn't exactly part of their society circles, I only became a southern belle to get you, remember?"

Taking in his expression at that, she shook her head. "I really have no idea Chuck, I only knew that her maiden name was Deveraux from my investigations and wanted to bait her, though her lack of reaction would appear to confirm what I said!"

"What lack of reaction? She seemed surprised and upset."

"Exactly! A good southern woman would have been absolutely outraged that anyone would besmirch their family's honour like that, but she was merely upset that I apparently knew!"

The choked laugh coming from John at that indicated that he agreed whole heartedly, and this at least drew a laugh from Ellie.

* * *

She looked back to ask Sarah if they could go out and do some training or something, as she didn't really want to sit at home just now.

Sarah smiled "Definitely! How about we go out for some more firearms training? I know we all want to try out Chuck's new creations."

Ellie was all for that idea, and it didn't take more than a look at John to see that he was too, so Chuck told them to head back to the house while he went down to McCready's to see whether his steam dray was available to rent.

It was little surprise to find that the dray was available, as in winter there was little demand for McCready's services, so he was soon chuffing home with the dray.

By the time he got there, the others had all changed into warm and practical outdoors clothes and Sarah and John had packed up everything they would need, so Ellie, John and Sarah loaded the dray while Chuck went in to change, and then they were off.

Though it had been snowing, it wasn't enough to cause a problem for the dray, so they had no trouble getting out to the spot just out of town that Chuck generally used as a shooting range.

While one of them took Ellie through her training, the others tested the new carbine and rifle. Sarah and John both insisted that Chuck try them first, then they all have a turn, including Ellie.

They tried the new carbine first and agreed that it handled better than the original did, then they moved on to the rifle.

They started with the .46-80 in the Centrefire cylinder, and the extra 11 inches of barrel length over the carbine made an obvious difference. John mused that this rifle's performance seemed to have an edge over his Sharps, and the ability to put out ten shots accurately in under twenty seconds with it was an obvious advantage.

Then Chuck changed to the .45-120 cylinder and they ran it through its paces as it was meant to be. It showed a noticeable edge from 600, out to 1000 yards (the limit they'd tested the .46-80 to) over the .46-80, and performed quite well at every range out to 2000 yards. At that range they could still get most shots into a four foot circle, even at rapid fire, which was astounding accuracy.

Afterwards, John sat with the rifle in his hands, looking at it, and then he looked up at Chuck. "I understand what you were saying in Washington now Chuck, the Sharps is a lethal weapon, but this" (lifting the rifle) "is just too much to put in the hands of most people. It can do everything the Sharps can and more, but it can put out ten shots in less than twenty seconds like that. The Army and anyone like them can't get their hands on, or even know about, something like this, it could be a recipe for a massacre."

Chuck nodded.

With Ellie's training and the new designs' testing done, they packed up and headed back into town. This time Sarah went with Chuck when he dropped the dray back to McCready though, so that they could have some time to themselves as they walked home together.

* * *

Now that the new designs had been proven, Chuck sent off the promised order for a further dozen of the telescopic sight which had performed the best in their trials. He also finalised the lists of what he wanted to get made for them, and due to the point Tom had made it was quite a pile.

The final work list included half a dozen of the sniper rifles with both .45-120 and .46 Centrefire cylinders. Then there was a dozen of the revised LeMat carbines with cylinders for both .46 Rimfire and Centrefire. There were four and a half dozen of the .46 revolvers and three and a half dozen .46 carbines like Ellie's, with eight dozen .46 Rimfire cylinders, and one and a half dozen .46 Centrefire cylinders. There were also one and a half dozen of the .38 revolvers with cylinders for both .38 Rimfire and Centrefire, and one and a half dozen each of the .46 and .38 derringers (the derringers could use either Rimfire or Centrefire cartridges).

The purpose of doing all of this was to try and improve their ability to take on what they may came up against. As Tom had pointed out in Washington, the Culper Ring was obviously capable of organising large, well armed forces to send against them. Therefore, if they weren't able to match their numbers, they needed to find a way to multiply the capabilities of those they had.

This was quite a pile of work, but he had John, Tom, Hank, Weed and some of the other boys helping with a lot of the repetitive work (things such as filing things smooth and the like which consumed a lot of the time).

The new guns for Tom and his men didn't get finished until after they'd moved to New York, so they didn't get a chance to try them until then. Tom was the only one of them who'd had the opportunity to compare the Rimfire and Centrefire versions, and he agreed with Chuck that the Rimfire versions fell a little short compared to the Centrefire in regard to accuracy.

That being said, there was no question that Chuck's handguns were leagues ahead of the Smith & Wesson Model 3s in .46 Short that they'd been issued the previous year in every way. For the most part, the S&Ws remained locked away, only being brought out when they were in uniform.

There was also no question that the revolving carbines with the .46 Long or Extra Long cartridges were a definite improvement on the Winchesters for longer ranges, though the Winchesters' greater capacity was useful at closer ranges. When they discussed this, Hank reminded him that he and half the others had carried both repeaters and longer range weapons back in the war, and were quite happy to do so again.

* * *

Sarah had located a suitable building down in New York and they'd taken a quick trip down there to confirm that it met their requirements before purchasing it.

Before they'd left New York that time, Chuck had drawn up the revisions to the plans for everything he wanted done in the building, discussing these with Sarah, John, Tom and Hank, making a few amendments where one of them had a suggestion to improve on his ideas.

With that done, they'd engaged builders to do the renovations in accordance with those plans, paying a premium to get it done as quickly as possible. Their new plans for the building had apartments on the upper floors, a storehouse on the ground floor and the Tolbert, Ives and Jager and Memphis Trading offices in between.

Around the time they acquired the building, Chuck delivered the last of the commissioned pieces and advised people that Bartowski Guns was finished, as they were leaving Boston to get away from the memory of what happened to their parents (the ruse that it had been his father who was the Bartowski Gunsmith made shutting down the business a simple matter).

With Bartowski Guns finished, Chuck could now devote most of his time to meeting the quotas he'd set himself and helping Ellie pack up the house. As well as helping Sarah set up the Memphis Trading Company and Tolbert, Ives and Jager, along with all the other things associated with that enterprise of course.

While he had no credentials that he could use to operate face to face, what Chuck had in his head meant that he actually had far more knowledge of the processes involved in this than Sarah did, so they were working together, every step along the way.

Their next trip to New York was to get the law firm established. They took along three of Tom's men who'd been dressed up and coached to play the three dead lawyers convincingly. While they played their parts well, afterwards the men said that they'd rather face an Apache war party unarmed than do that again!

While they were in New York to get their law firm set up, Sarah (as Sam) also chased down the lawyers she wanted to hire and talked them into coming over to the firm. Some of the men she saw recommended others who they had some regard for and trusted, and soon enough they had engaged over a dozen good lawyers (not counting the partners) to work for them, plus a dozen more law clerks.

They'd also started hiring the people they needed to work the Memphis Trading offices, to deal with the correspondence, make transactions, business trades and the like and maintain their business image.

By the time their apartments were ready in their building in New York (which was now identified as Memphis House), they'd packed up the house and the workrooms out the back in Boston, arranged the sale of the house, and Ellie had finished at the hospital. Over half of the contents of the house and workrooms had already been shipped to New York by then.

The saddest part about leaving Boston though was that in truth, they weren't really leaving much behind. Chuck would stay in contact with some of his old friends from Boston Tech (though most of them had already moved away as well), but that was it, which didn't say much for his friends.

It was even worse for Ellie, because only a couple of her friends had proven true and stuck by her after that incident at the Woodcombs' and her breaking with Devon. Most of her so-called friends had jumped on the bandwagon to curry favour with the Woodcombs, embellishing the stories about Ellie and her family to scandalous proportions. Given that many of these so-called friends also worked at the hospital where both she and Devon worked, this had made it a constant torment for her to attend there.

It was actually Dr Roberts, the father of Chuck's erstwhile intended, who had prevailed upon the administrators to release her from working out the last of her notice (which she had submitted prior to that incident at the Woodcombs', something he took pains to bring to their attention), to spare her the unfair torment that she was being subjected to.

When Ellie went to thank him for this kindness, she recalled what Sarah had said at the Woodcombs' about Bryce Larkin, and repeated this to him. He looked quite pleased with this and asked her to convey his thanks to her sister-in-law.

So it was that they relocated to New York in early February of seventy one (they'd insisted that the apartments and elevator be completed first, given that the rest of the construction could be then completed without effecting them to any great degree).

Yes, their building even had an elevator, though those who were to be working in the offices would be told that it was only for the use of the owners, partners and directors. Any possessed of inappropriate curiosity enough to investigate would find that the strange locks on the elevator doors were well nigh impregnable. There was a reason for this, of course, and this was that the elevator was to be their primary access to the apartments upstairs, so they could use it to go to and from their apartments without the the people working downstairs being any the wiser.

The elevator itself was actually a clockwork device that Chuck had created. It needed to be cranked up again after every two or three trips up and down, depending on how many floors it went each time, but it worked quite capably.

The gun safe had certainly tested the elevator's mechanism. A number of the troopers had tried to convince Chuck to let them ride up with the safe in his stead, but he'd insisted that the elevator was his creation and he would be the one who tested it!

Needless to say, Sarah had given him a serious talking to about that afterwards, taking pains to point out the fact that that safe wasn't even needed, given that they had a secure vault on the floor below the one that had their (Chuck, Sarah and Ellie's) apartment and offices and Chuck's workroom. The floor below had the vault, and the rooms for John, Tom, Andy, Hank and six other men, while the next two floors had the rooms for the rest of the men.

* * *

Once the offices were completed and the people they'd hired had started, Sarah and Chuck began pushing the work that they'd been preparing out to them to take up. While Sarah had been doing much of the legwork for setting up the law firm and the companies (with Chuck's help), only Chuck had the ability to read most of the material in the ledgers and remember what was necessary to create the authorities and authorisations with the correct signatures and other identifiers, so it had been a busy time for him. To be fair, it had been busy for Sarah as well, as she'd already started initiating these transfers as soon as they'd had the Tolbert, Ives and Jager practice established.

Both the Tolbert, Ives and Jager and the Memphis Trading people were told that the owners who were behind the Memphis Trading group were spread about the country, and therefore the partners and directors spent most of their time away with the owners.

As a result, Tolbert, Ives and Jager had just one 'Partners' office with a few desks and a conference table in it, but the only partner who ever used it, that they saw, was the junior partner, Sam (Mr Walton to those who hadn't known him from before).

The Memphis Trading office had a similar 'Directors' office, but again, they only ever saw Mr Barton and Mr Casey using this (as at that point, the other directors were merely identities that Chuck had dredged from the Daemon's victims, just as he had the law firm's partners and most of the directors for the rest of their companies).

These new offices (like the apartments above) were at the forefront of technology, with electric lights and telefono connections. Both offices were equipped with their own telegraph stations to communicate with the owners, partners and directors about the country (never knowing that these people were in fact upstairs in the same building whenever they happened to be in New York), as well as other businesses that they may have to deal with.

The telefonos were based on the work of the Italian inventor, Signore Meucci, and were used to talk over telegraph wires. These connections allowed people to talk to others around the office or the building (or around the country for that matter) without leaving their offices. They only had to plug the fono wire into the relevant socket, wind the crank on the telefono and they could be talking to the person in minutes.

The offices also both had Babbage Analytical Engines installed, though the one employed in the Memphis Trading office saw more use than the one in the law firm. Mechanical calculators and the latest models of the Hansen Writing Ball type writing machines and Takygraf stenography machines were also used, but of course the Takygrafs saw more use in the law offices than the Memphis Trading office.

The Memphis Trading Group had quickly became Reverend Malling-Hansen's biggest and most favoured patron, due to the very generous donations they made, and trials of the new writing ball design that he supplied to them at the start of seventy one had led to an immediate request for a further two dozen of these marvellous devices, with an query as to whether they could be built to allow them to also be used to create the templates for his Xerografi process. The answer to this question was yes, and they received their requested devices, even though it took the Reverend over a year to manage to get them all built.

 **A/N: If anyone wants an image of what it would look like in the offices for** **Tolbert, Ives and Jager and Memphis Trading, look up the Ericsson AC110 Eiffel Tower telephones and the Hansen Writing Ball. These marvellous devices are the epitome of style for the steampunk office to me and I was seeing them on oak desks with blotters and ink wells as I wrote this.**

 **I was also imagining small, simple telephone switchboard panels that they plug the phone leads into, with a light bulb for each line, so people know which one a call is coming in on. Obviously some offices (like the Partners and Directors offices) will have more direct connections available than others, and they would have a bigger switchboard to handle outside calls and allow connections to be moved around the office for most people.**

 **Reverend Malling-Hansen created many fascinating devices, the Writing Ball was probably the most striking, but his Takygraf stenography machines and his Xerografi copying process were impressive as well.**


	7. Rebellion, Legs and Ponies

**OK. They're not exactly ponies but they're similar. ;^)**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world, nor a Disney Princess tale.**

As well as the work that Sarah and Chuck had been doing to set up the various parts of the Memphis Trading empire and get started on transferring the Daemon's holdings across though, they also had to process the information packets being express mailed and urgent telegrams sent every day from Uncle Sam. These related to issues that Uncle Sam wanted investigated in regard to the Culper Ring, and other things as

They made no attempt to keep any of this from Ellie, and the more she saw of these matters, the more she understood the nature of the fight that Chuck, Sarah, John and Tom's people were involved in, so she assisted where they could. As she became more and more immersed in these investigations, Ellie quickly came to realise that she had no great desire to continue professionally as a doctor in New York, as this fight was one that was important, and she wanted to help.

Ellie wasn't aware at the time of Sarah and John's machinations to get her formally added to the team. It wasn't too hard a sell for them, as Uncle Sam had already known of Stephen's capabilities and first class mind, and Chuck's to boot, so it didn't take much to convince him that Ellie was of a similar ilk. And he'd been delighted when they'd told him about what she had done to Woody Woodcomb.

Therefore, only Ellie was surprised when they were all called to Washington for a meeting with Uncle Sam soon after they moved to New York. They organised another Pullman's Hotel car to take them to and from Washington, only one this time though, because they were taking a smaller protective detail with them as the risks were considered to be limited. On their first trip to Washington, they had set up code names and code books that were known only to them, Uncle Sam and one or two of the President's most trusted aides, so they were relatively confident that the Culper Ring would not learn of this trip.

One of the first things Sarah and Chuck had done when the Daemon's money started coming in was make a significant investment into the Pullman's Palace Car Company and enter into a contract with them. This contract was a commitment from them for at least a year's worth of rentals of the Pullman's Palace cars over a ten year period at an agreed figure, in exchange for priority over any other renters when they placed a request for the cars. The benefit to Pullman's in this agreement was that they had the guarantee of a year's rental of their cars, even if it was at a slightly discounted rate. The benefit for them was both the fact that they had a guaranteed rate, and that when they wanted cars they would get them.

As the money coming in accumulated, they quickly expanded on this initiative by investing in the most significant railroad companies across the country, to assure them the best chance of getting those Pullman cars onto trains when they needed it, and procuring the use of other cars where needed too. It wasn't too long before they owned a notable stake in the transport network across the country.

* * *

Upon their arrival in Washington, they found a steam carriage, steam wagon and escort waiting to take them to the President's House. This was, at least, an improvement over the last time they'd arrived, but Tom still wasn't about to relinquish his responsibilities and took over the carriage and the escort's horses. The Lieutenant commanding the escort had heard what happened to the Captain in command of the last escort for these people and didn't resist, at least he and his men had the wagon to get them back to the President's House.

In the President's House, they were waved past the guards again and directed straight to the President's antechamber, and they'd hardly been there a minute before the men who were with the President were ushered out, and they were waved in.

Chuck had noted something in the antechamber, though, and as soon as they were inside, he asked the President whether he had any way of viewing the antechamber. The President looked at him, confused, but nodded and led the way to a spot on the wall facing the antechamber, uncovering a peep hole. Once Chuck had confirmed the locations of the men who'd attracted his attention, he relinquished the peep hole to the President and directed his attention to the men in question.

Then Chuck told him he had strong information on Culper Ring connections in regard to three of these men, and slightly more tenuous information on the fourth, though the fact that he was pretending not to know them but kept glancing at them was in and of itself suspicious.

The President nodded and went to the door, opening it to get the attention of one of his aides and wave him over.

When he was inside, the man was directed to the peep hole and Chuck identified the four men to him, then the President ordered that the four men be arrested as quietly as possible and locked up for questioning.

* * *

With that done, the President greeted them and waved them to their seats. He didn't waste any time, and launched into the matter at hand. "Eleanor, Sarah and John have convinced me that it would be beneficial to the team for me to formally add you to the team. Presuming that you are agreeable with that notion, are you prepared to accept the responsibilities of becoming a Special Secret Service Agent, reporting directly to me under the same conditions as Sarah and Charles?"

Ellie looked at the others, then turned back to the President to answer excitedly. "Yes, Mister President!"

The President smiled at that, but went on. "Now Eleanor, it would be dangerous for people to know that you are family in the field, this is why Sarah is still using the name Sarah Walker and Charles is using Charles Barton, for that reason we believe that it would be best if you used your mother's maiden name, Helsing, would that be acceptable to you?"

Ellie looked at Sarah and they shared a smile, then she turned back to the President and said. "Yes, Mr President, that would be quite acceptable."

The President smiled and said "Well then. Welcome, Secret Service Agent Eleanor Helsing!"

With that he handed her the credentials that had been prepared for her.

With that out of the way, they settled down to discuss the matters that they'd been working on for him. As they talked, the President noted the insights that Ellie was offering, and had to admit that the counsel of Sarah and John to bring her into the fold had been good, she would definitely be a worthwhile addition to this exceptional team.

* * *

When the President said that he wanted them to get out into the field straight away though, Chuck looked conflicted and Sarah just gave him a flat. "No!"

Dote on this girl though he did, this was sufficient to raise his ire, and he fixed her with a look which would have had most men quaking in their boots (though it had no effect on her), asking "Would you care to explain yourself young lady?"

"We have work and training that we must complete in New York before we will be ready to head out into the field. I expect that that will take us another…."

She looked at Chuck. "Two to four months?" (Chuck nodded) "After that we will be ready to take on field assignments Uncle Sam."

"And if I do not agree to your demands?"

"I believe that I gave you that answer the last time we were here Uncle Sam."

He nodded, not at all happy with this development, but he couldn't afford to lose this team. If Sarah resigned, so would Charles of course, and Eleanor would obviously go with them. He MAY keep John, Tom and his team, but they had gotten so close that that was by no means certain any more either, so he'd most probably lose all of his best resources.

He sighed in resignation "Very well, it is agreed that you will remain in New York until you advise me that you are ready to go into the field. Will you consider limited operations around New York and areas nearby?"

Sarah looked at Chuck and John, and at their agreement she turned back to him and nodded "Yes, sir."

"I trust that the team are still prepared to process and provide comment on the information that is being sent to you?"

She didn't bother looking this time "Yes, Sir."

"Very well, it appears that I must take what I can get. Now I do hope that you will stay to have dinner with us? Your Aunt Julia would be quite upset if she didn't get to see you."

Sarah nodded "Of course Uncle Sam!"

"We will see you all at seven then, dress will be casual, as this is strictly a family dinner. Now I must get back to those men out there if I am to be done by then."

With that, he stood to walk them to the door, Sarah went up to kiss him on the cheek, and he gave her a tired smile and embraced her before he opened the door to let them out.

* * *

As it was only mid afternoon, Sarah and Ellie decided that this would be a good opportunity to go shopping (they rarely had time for such pursuits in New York), and they dragged the men along.

Andy was startled when Tom said "Andy, you're of an age with Ellie, so for this afternoon, you will be her beau and will accompany them. We can't all go into these shops, so it will be Sarah with Chuck, Ellie with you, and John as the doting uncle while the rest of us wait outside."

Andy recovered and said "Yes, Tom." Ellie laughed and linked arms with him as they headed down the sidewalk.

Sarah and Chuck were behind them, arm in arm, and Sarah was murmuring what a handsome couple that Ellie and Andy made with a smile.

Chuck looked at her out of the corner of his eye and asked "What are you up to my love?"

She gave him a look of such pure innocence that most anyone else would would have been fooled by, but Chuck kept looking at her. Finally she gave in and murmured "After all that nasty business with the Woodcombs, Ellie deserves some happiness, and they like each other, surely you see that?"

Chuck nodded carefully.

"So if they were to actually _be_ a couple, I believe that that would be good for her. Also, I don't see Andy being the type to spurn her when Ellie tells him that she gave into Devon Woodcomb's demands for her to prove her love for him a few times."

That made Chuck's eyes widen and he hissed. " _WHAT?_ "

Sarah fixed him with a look "She was being courting by him for years Chuck, she thought that she loved him and that they were planning to wed. More to the point, she believed that he loved her and was going to marry her. It was only to be expected for her to give in to his pressure a time or three. Need I remind you my dear husband that you, yourself, gave in to my pleas to do that very thing before we were wed, in a _much_ shorter period?"

Chuck shook his head, but obviously wasn't happy about this news. Sarah tugged on his arm to stop him, and when he did so, stretched up on tip toe to kiss his lips, murmuring "Just let it be, please? I love you."

He kissed her back, saying "I love you too!"

They heard someone clearing their throat next to them and Sarah whirled with her finger raised to scold John, only to find that it was Tom. "Oh, it's you Tom, well I'll tell you the same thing I do Uncle John. I reserve the right to kiss my husband when and where I want!"

Tom looked amused "You won't get any argument on that from me Sarah, but I was only trying to let you know that you are causing a blockage on the sidewalk."

She looked behind them, to see that they were indeed holding people up. At that she blushed and hastily pulled Chuck to the side, apologising to the people as they passed her in embarrassment, even though most of them looked more amused than anything. Indeed, one older woman paused to say "That was so sweet dear!" before moving on.

A little further down the sidewalk, Ellie and Andy were standing arm in arm, beaming at them.

They spent the next few hours wandering from one dress shop to the next, accumulating piles of boxes as they went. Whenever these boxes became unwieldy, they'd hail a cab and have one of the men take the boxes back to their Hotel car (as they'd held it there for their return to New York) before returning.

Once it had passed six, they began to meander towards the President's House for dinner. All in all, it had been a very pleasant afternoon for them all (even Tom and the troopers, as they were able enjoy the relaxed atmosphere while still maintaining the appropriate vigilance over their charges).

Dinner was also a pleasant affair, and not even the knowledge that they'd be on the last train for New York that night was enough to ruin the mood. Aunt Julia understood about the life her ward led (not the details perhaps, but she had a general understanding) and was just happy to get to spend some time with her, and her new family.

* * *

On the train, they talked while they had their beds made up, but just before they broke for bed, Tom laughed and they all looked at him. He shook his head "I was just thinking, there's only thirty eight of us all up, but we've got a United States Marshal, three Secret Service Agents, two Colonels, a Major, a Captain and well over two dozen NCOs. Most of the men should be officers as well, hell, half of them _were_ before they got themselves busted down again, some more than once, and over a dozen of them have been awarded the Medal of Honor. We're carrying a hell of a lot of brass for such a small group."

The others agreed, laughing, and with that they went to bed.

In the morning, they were back in New York and ready for their normal duties.

The trip to Washington had given them a new perspective on some things though, and as she watched a man walking with a mechanical leg at the station, something occurred to Ellie. "Tom?"

He looked at her "Yes Ellie?"

"You said that your father lost his leg in the war?" he nodded.

"How is he handling that? Did he have a replacement leg made?"

He nodded "Yes, Scottie made him one that works well enough, it's nothing like a real leg, of course, but it gets him around."

"You know he can do better than that, surely?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the leg Chuck made for Papa? Papa said it could do just about anything a real leg could. I'm sure Chuck would be happy to make one for your father, too!"

He turned to look at Chuck, wondering how he could have forgotten about that leg he made for his father and how Stephen had moved as if he had two good legs, eventually he nodded. "I'll talk to Chuck and father about that, thank you Ellie."

He talked to Chuck that night, and sent a letter to his father the next morning. His parents came to New York a week later to discuss the options with Chuck, and Scottie and his wife came along as well, so Scottie could tell Chuck about what the issues had been as he saw them.

Tom's father was an engineer as well (Joseph was the exception in a long line of distinguished cavalry officers, as he'd been stomped by a horse when he was a boy and steered clear of the beasts ever since, instead turning to engineering and boats), so he, Chuck and Scottie got along famously.

The others, including their wives, found their eyes glazing over, listening to the men embroiled in engineering arcana after dinner in a nice restaurant, so they'd left them to it and went off to discuss other things.

Scottie's wife Annella laughed as she watched a distracted Chuck kiss Sarah when she told him she'd leave him to it, because he was much like Angus (she wasn't about to put up with his nonsense of not answering to anything but Aonghus Caileanach, she'd married the man as Angus MacCallan, and he'd answer to that with her or face the consequences!) had been, back when they were courting. The boy loved her dearly, there was no doubt about that, but if there was a tricky engineering problem in front of him, she'd lose him to it.

They did interrupt the men a couple of hours later though, as they were by then the last people in the restaurant. The others had been talking and dancing for most of that time (Sarah had never known what a good dancer Uncle John was!), but it was time to let the good people pack up and go home.

Chuck was contrite when he realised that he'd been ignoring Sarah most of the evening, but he still remembered to grab the pile of drawings and notes that they'd been making before he left the table. He kept apologising most of the way home until she made him stop, telling him she didn't mind! It took Ellie and Andy laughing at him to make him shake it off.

Chuck asked Tom's parents to stay for a week so that he could do the fittings to get the leg started properly. While Chuck was in his lair (as Sarah laughingly referred to his workroom), Sarah spent a good deal of that week talking to Tom's father about their business.

In that time they had made an agreement for Memphis Trading to make a major investment into the Paterson family business (which Joseph ran with his brothers), in the return for the commitment for work to be done for them by the Paterson Company, as they dealt in areas that Chuck had an interest in. Joseph had little trouble agreeing because securing a sizeable investment without having to worry about it being an attempt to take over control of their company was a major boon to the Paterson Company.

Of course, at the end of the week, the only ones who were surprised when Chuck presented Joseph with his completed leg were Joseph and Beatrice (his wife). Joseph was unsteady on the leg at first, as he would have to learn to walk on it, but he could already tell that Tom had been right, in time it would be like having his real leg back. Beatrice wasn't the only one with tears in their eyes as they tried to tell Chuck how grateful they were.

* * *

After Tom's parents went back to Pittsburgh, the team got back to their 'proper' schedule, working on Uncle Sam's information packets and feeding the information for more transfers of the Daemon's holdings to Memphis Trading through the law firm for processing.

As the scale of these transfer operations grew, Tolbert, Ives and Jager had to make affiliations with other established legal firms, around the country and around the world, to deal with those transfers and manage the assets of Memphis Trading and its members.

The operation continued, transferring funds, stocks, holdings and properties into Memphis trading and the identities they'd created. Even though they'd created well over a hundred identities to establish accounts in all of the major banks of the United States, Europe, Africa and some parts of the East to collect the funds being transferred though, those names, along with Memphis Trading and many of their other business names, still begun attracting considerable attention, because of the sheer scale of the fortune that they were acquiring.

They hadn't taken the time to determine what these funds and holdings amounted to before they began the process to transfer them into their control, and as the truth of this began to be revealed, they were shocked. Sarah summed it up when she looked at Chuck wide eyed and said "Chuck, I believe that you may well be the richest man in the world!"

This comment made Chuck troll back though the memories stuffed into his head to determine how this had come about. What he discovered was that much of the time, when the Daemon had taken someone's life, soul and memories, it had generally also taken whatever holdings that person had. Over more than five millennia, this had amounted to the fortunes of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people, rich and poor, if not more.

Not content with this, or perhaps to convince itself of it's own superiority, the Daemon had then often gone on to invest large swaths of this fortune in enterprises which in many instances had in turn multiplied its holdings further.

What this amounted to was that Sarah was quite likely correct in what she said, and that just beggared belief!

They did not stay the process of taking ownership of all the Daemon's holdings, however, as they didn't know whether any minions of the Daemon may yet have access to these holdings, and the intentions of anyone that deep in the confidence of a creature such as that would almost certainly have to be evil, truly evil! With this belief, they continued on the path of acquiring every bit of these holdings that they could, to ensure that they could not be used to further anyone's evil plans.

* * *

They were also coming to realise that there were other benefits to having these riches at their disposal, as this impossible fortune could help them defeat this bogus 'Culper Ring' at its own game. What had come out of both Sarah's investigations and Chuck's memories was that the political chicanery that the Culper Ring was involved in was nothing more than a means to an end for them, as their primary focus was making money (often through questionable practices such as intimidation and murder). Their prime interest in politics was to buy the loyalty of corrupt individuals such as Woodcomb, so that they could then use them to push through decisions to further their interests.

Now though, with the fortune of the Daemon at their disposal, they had the opportunity to snatch whatever the Culper Ring was going after from right under their very noses. They'd already begun this process, looking into prospective deals that Chuck's memories or Sarah's investigations had identified, and swooping in wherever the Culper Ring hadn't yet acquired the companies, assets or holdings that they were going after, to snatch them up before they were able to.

While they weren't following the Culper Ring's practices to buy up these assets as cheap as the Ring had been planning to, they were actually making quite an agreeable gain on many of these investments. Of course, they were also thwarting the Culper Ring in their plans for expansion, which was the primary aim of the exercise.

Between the efforts of Chuck, Sarah, and Tolbert, Ives and Jager, the transfers of the Daemon's holdings were mostly done by the time they came up to Spring in seventy one.

Their training, and the operations that they'd undertaken in New York, Boston and other cities nearby, had by then made them confident that they were ready to take up their duties. They'd had instruction in firearms from John, Sarah and others, the use of blades and unarmed fighting from Sarah and Chuck, and myriad lessons on spy craft from Sarah, John and Chuck, and these, combined with copious practice, gave them the confidence that they were ready.

* * *

Uncle Sam had told them after they came to Washington that the indications were that the Culper Ring's main activity was out west, so when they were ready that was where he'd need them to be. He also pointed out that he expected that they could need to go quite a ways out into the back country for this.

This meant that they'd need to travel far past anywhere that they could rely on any type of mechanised transport. Therefore Chuck sat down with Sarah, John, Hank, Tom and their other 'horse people' to compile a comprehensive list of requirements for the mounts they'd need to give them the best transportation options out there.

Sarah sent Uncle Sam this list of requirements with the request to locate fifty suitable mounts which matched these requirements, saying that they would pay for them, but they did not have the time to hunt them down. (Sarah wasn't surprised that it never occurred to Uncle Sam to ask where the money was coming from for this, as he'd never had a head for money, Aunt Julia was the one who worried about that.)

President Grant was a renowned horse master, and while at first he'd raised his eyebrow at these requirements, when he stopped to consider them he'd agreed that if they were met, they would provide _very_ capable mounts. Therefore, he called in three of the best horse scouts he knew to set them to looking for these horses.

One of the scouts looked at the list and asked "Do they have to be horses Sir?"

He looked a question at the man and he elaborated.

"If we can find mules that meet these requirements, they'd probably be better. The ones who made this list obviously know horses. They're specifying mounts that can be rode long and hard if needed, but more importantly can cover long distances quickly and comfortably and stay in good shape while doing it. From this, I doubt that they'd object if those mounts aren't pretty, so long as they can do what they're asked to. Mules would be hardier, and most likely stronger, so they could fit the bill better for this" (holding up the list) "than horses."

The other two horse scouts agreed with this reasoning, so the President nodded. "All right, look for both mules and horses that meet those requirements. I'll check with the ones who made up that list, but for now presume that mules will be acceptable." With that, the men departed.

When asked, Sarah quickly confirmed that mules would be quite acceptable, and they started on their equestrian practice and training to get ready for this. They all needed the practice, as Chuck and Sarah's horse skills were rusty, and Ellie hadn't spent much time on horses at all. Even John, Tom and his men hadn't spent as much time as they'd like with horses in recent years, because so much of their work had been in cities.

Therefore, most of them spent as much time as they could, getting comfortable with long hours in the saddle again, as well as handling horses and driving all sorts of teams, up to and including eight in hand teams.

Sarah took it on herself to teach Ellie how to ride properly, both astride and aside. (The sad fact remained that in much of the country, women who were seen riding astride would be abused and attacked, so any place that they were likely to be seen by 'civilised' folk, the two of them would have to ride side saddle.) Before Sarah had gone off to Colombia Law as Samuel Walton, Uncle Sam (and in particular Aunt Julia) had put quite a bit of time and money into trying to get her to master the skills of a proper young lady, and one of the requisite skills for that had been riding side saddle well.

They'd arranged for the best teachers for her, and she had indeed become quite accomplished. With Uncle Sam's passion for horses, he'd also taught her everything he knew about horses (which was quite a lot), as well as riding astride and driving horses (in secret so that Aunt Julia wouldn't find out, of course). Sarah had soaked everything she was taught like a sponge, so there was no-one better to teach Ellie how to ride, drive and handle horses than her.

Ellie and everyone else was coming along quite well when they received a letter from Uncle Sam.

Chuck laughed when the map that came with this letter directed them to a farm near St Joseph, Missouri where the horse scout believed he'd found just the mounts they were looking for, because he never thought he'd be going back there. Only Sarah, Chuck, John, Tom and eight of the best horse people in the team, including Hank and Weed, went on this trip. Everyone else stayed back in New York.

When they reached St Joseph, quite a bit had changed in the ten years since Chuck was there with the Pony Express, and there wasn't anyone left in town that he knew. They didn't have any trouble renting horses to get out to the identified farm but the strange thing was, when they asked, no-one seemed to know the man who owned that farm.

The general consensus was that he was a queer old coot who lived somewhere up in the hills all by himself. When he did come to town for supplies and such, he hardly talked to anyone, just did what he had to and headed back out as quick as he could. These stories made them wonder what they'd find when they got up there, but they were confident Uncle Sam wouldn't have sent them out here on a wild goose chase, so they headed out to the farm.

At first sight, the farm didn't inspire confidence, just a ramshackle little cottage surrounded by paddocks in a small valley right up in the hills, but then the mules came out to see who'd arrived, and they knew that they were in the right place.

* * *

They could instinctively tell that these mules were exactly what they'd been looking for. What they'd asked for, essentially, was 16 - 16 ½ hand gaited mounts that were strong and hardy, with sturdy, uniform conformation (so they could swap saddles between them when changing mounts), good endurance, able to carry a load and run fast and long. These mules obviously fit those requirements, some were up around 17 hands, but that was fine.

On top of that, they were obviously intelligent, with good personalities (most of them seemed a fairly spirited but they liked that), and they were beautiful. They were all black, well formed, and they didn't have the big jug headed look of most mules, their's was a rather more refined look. Indeed, if not for their short manes and longer ears, they would have passed as very nice horses.

When the mules came up to the fence to see who these people were, Chuck got off his horse and went over to say hello to them, and he was so lost in this that he didn't notice the man until he spoke from right beside him.

When the old man came out of the cottage, Sarah was worried that he'd be angry that Chuck had just gone up to his mules before speaking to him and went to say something, but he'd waved her to be quiet with a smile.

He stood there for about five minutes, watching Chuck talk to the mules, then he said "I guess you're Colonel Barton then?"

Chuck started and turned to him "Yes? Oh, I'm sorry sir, I should have come to see you first, but I just had to say hello to them."

The man smiled again "I could see that, they like you son, that's rare, especially for Diablo."

"Diablo?"

The old man scratched the nose of the one who was right in front of Chuck, because he'd pushed his way in. "This is Diablo."

Chuck smiled and scratched Diablo's nose as well, for probably the tenth time since he'd arrived, saying "Hello Diablo."

The old man spoke again "They told me you want to buy my mules?"

"Yes, sir, I do."

"I don't have fifty, I only have forty eight."

"That's fine."

"You wanna talk about them?"

"Yes please."

Chuck held out his hand to Sarah, and taking her hand as she came over he said "I'm so sorry sir, my manners are terrible today, I'm Chuck, this is my wife, Sarah, and these are John, Tom, Hank and another Tom, but we call him Weed" (Weed's name was actually Thomas Banner.)

The old man smiled and said "Never mind the sirs Chuck, my name's Barsali" and shook Sarah's hand politely, nodded to the others and waved them towards the cottage.

Inside, Barsali told them about his mules, their dams were all Paso Fino/Frisian crosses, so they were big sturdy, strong and spirited gaited horses. Their sire, Paco, was a Pega/Mammoth cross, so he'd been a big, strong, sturdy, gaited donkey. He'd lost Paco nearly five years ago, but hadn't bothered looking for a replacement, because he was getting old, and had no-one to pass all of this on to anyway.

He was surprised when Chuck commented that he'd never heard of Paso Fino or Pega stock being in America before, because he had trouble even finding out what Rico and Juan were. Especially Juan, it had taken _years_ of letters to get the information about him from Brazil. Barsali explained that he'd taken in and looked after the two foals who grew to be his Paso Fino stallion Rico, and his Pega jack Juan when he found them wandering about after a shipwreck on the coast of Carolina.

He went on to say that he'd started breeding Rico with the two Frisian mares that they'd had hauling their wagon, who were twins actually, when he and his wife settled on the farm in the fifties. For some reason all their offspring until he lost Rico were fillies, and half of them were twins too, but they were all lovely girls. He lost their dams to cougars as well few years after Rico.

When he finally got information about what Juan was, he was interested in what a cross with him would be like, so he'd cast about until he found a good Mammoth jenny, and started breeding him with her. Her first two foals were his younger jennies, and then she had Paco, but that winter he'd lost Juan too.

Paco and the young mares became old enough to breed after the war started, so he put him to them then. His mules were the result of that, and he'd waved out the door with a smile, adding. "And you can see how they came out."

He went over the fact that they had all been trained to saddle, pack saddle and harness, and that none of the mules or mares were shod, as their hooves held up better that way and they were more sure footed to boot.

After they'd talked for a while, they went back out to look over the mules and the mares who were their dams properly. They had all rode a few of the mules, and Sarah and Chuck also rode some of the mares at Barsali's bidding. They were everything they could have hoped for, so they went inside to finalise the deal.

Barsali explained that he was looking to sell all of his stock other than his jennies, because he was getting too old to look after them, so Chuck offered to buy all of them, as the mares were indeed lovely girls.

Chuck and Sarah tried to convince him to take a fair price for them, but he explained that he didn't have anyone to leave the money to, and that his main concern had been to make sure that they went to the right people, who he'd found now. They did convince him to come down to St Joseph with them to open a bank account and deposit the money, as if people knew that he'd sold his whole stock, they might come looking to take the money he got for them.

Once Barsali had deposited most of the money in the bank, they helped him get the supplies and fancies that he wanted from the store and thanked him again before they said goodbye. With that he headed back to his farm in his wagon, pulled by his two jennies.

They were all happy, Chuck and the others had somehow managed to get the mounts that they'd dreamed of, but never thought they'd find, and indeed they were far more than they'd hoped for, and they had a dozen lovely mares as well.

Barsali was happy that most of his children, the mules and their dams, had gone to a good home where they'd be appreciated and looked after, loved too, going by how Chuck and the others had been with them. He'd been worrying about what would happen to them when he was gone, as they'd been all he had since he'd lost his Grauni six years back. They'd been like his children even before that (he and Grauni had never had children and they were Romani, so their horses were family to them), but after she passed, they'd become his whole world.

He and Grauni had settled here about fifteen years back because life on the road was getting harder for them, but they'd always been viewed with suspicion. For most it was simply because they were foreign, but for those from the old country it was because they were Romani, so they'd never gotten close to anyone hereabouts.

That was why, when that government man came to talk to him about his mules and showed him the list of requirements that they'd been given to look for, he thought that he might have found the answer. He'd let the man look over the mules, but he wouldn't sell them to him, he insisted that he had to talk to the people who wanted them before he'd sell (he had to see who he was going to give them to).

The man told him that a Colonel Barton would be coming to see him, giving him a description of Chuck's age and appearance. That was how he'd known him when he saw him at the fence, with the mules vying for his attention which, in turn, was how he knew that he was the right one to pass them on to.

* * *

While they were in St Joseph, Chuck tracked down someone else, Mr Israel Landis. Mr Landis had been instrumental in creating the Pony Express saddles, and while he was in his sixties now, the challenge of what Chuck wanted intrigued him so he'd jumped at the chance to take it on.

What Chuck was after was lightweight saddles similar to the Pony Express saddles, but with some changes to suit their needs. They had to be comfortable for both mule and rider, and while the majority of the mochilas would be for riders in a few saddle sizes, a dozen saddle pannier versions were needed as well. He also wanted two similar saddles made up as side saddles, to Sarah and Ellie's measurements.

This order was sizeable, as they wanted four dozen made up to fit the mules, plus another dozen to fit the mares. Mr Landis went through and carefully measured all of them, both mules and mares. He was surprised to report that the mules were so uniform that the same saddles would fit all of them quite comfortably. The mares were almost as uniform, so the same saddles would still fit them all comfortably too.

They were quite surprised when he said that he could get these all done in a month, but he pointed out that once he had the first ones right, as they would all be much the same more could be made side by side at the same time, so they could save a lot of time that way. They paid him up front, a little more than the figure he told them, and asked him to advise them if any of the costs increased, for example for the black leather that they specified, so that they could wire through more money. (Chuck also asked him to see if he could get someone to keep an eye out for Barsali, to make sure he was all right, and Mr Landis promised that he would.)

As soon as they got back to town they had wired off the request to have a train made up of six of the big ten stall horse cars sent to St Joseph as soon as possible, but it still took four days for it to arrive. At least that gave Mr Landis time to recheck his measurements and do the initial fittings on the mules and mares for the different saddles to confirm that they'd all sit well.

Mr Landis also spent a while talking to Sarah about what she wanted from the side saddles over the time that they were waiting for the horse cars to arrive, and some of his ideas intrigued her.

* * *

Those who'd gone to St Joseph had all laid claim to 'their' mounts and were bonding with them by the time the train arrived to take them back east. Diablo was obviously Chuck's, while Bruja, Demonio, Belus and Agenor and Herja (full sisters and brothers of Diablo, with Belus and Agenor being twins) were the ones for Sarah, John, Tom, Hank and Weed.

Their dam, Nyx, was obviously something special, because her foals were the biggest, strongest and most spirited of all the mules. Strangely enough, Nyx's twin sister Nox was more sweet tempered than her sister, and her children, while similar in size and strength, were also a lot more sweet tempered than Nyx's children.

On the way back to Washington, they all spent a fair bit of the time in the horse cars, as there were five mules or horses per person to be looked after and given attention. Chuck had pulled rank here, so he and Sarah looked after the mules and horses in the first horse car, which of course held Diablo, Bruja and their brothers and sister, plus Nyx, Nox and two other mares.

Their only reason to stop in Washington was to put the mares off to be taken out to General Cranston's farm, as he'd agreed to look after them until they could collect them. After they'd handed off the mares to the General's men to take them out to the farm (they would have liked to take them out there themselves, but they really couldn't spare the time after the delays in St Joseph) and dropped one empty horse car from the train, they proceeded on to New York, putting the mules into the stables out at the horse farm where they did their riding.

One thing that was handy about this horse farm was that there was a railroad station within walking distance, which made it easy for them both to deliver the mules there, and to visit it.

Once they were back in New York with the mules, all their equestrian practice was done with them, so that they could become accustomed to one another. They soon found out why most of Nyx's children had evocative names, because Diablo, Bruja, Demonio, Herja, even Belus and Agenor, generally weren't at all happy when most people tried to ride them, though Sarah and Chuck were accepted by all of them.

As a result, Nyx's children were usually left to their chosen people, as they didn't have nearly enough saddles to fit all of them anyway at first. They were receiving batches of saddles from Mr Landis as soon as they were completed though, so they soon rectified that problem.

Just as the mules had far exceeded their expectations, Mr Landis's saddles turned out far better than they'd hoped for too. They were only about a third of the weight of normal saddles, giving the mules less load to carry. They also sat so well on the mules that they were comfortable wearing them for long periods, and these saddles were far more comfortable for their riders than they looked too, letting them spend a lot more time in the saddle comfortably than they could with normal saddles.

The side saddles he made for Sarah and Ellie though, were something else. They were more comfortable than any other side saddle Sarah had tried (for Bruja as well), but the genius of the design was that Mr Landis had managed to make them function just as well as both aside and astride saddles, they just had to adjust the stirrup leathers on one side and strap the other stirrup on. They looked strange riding astride with the two horns off one side, but Sarah and Ellie were more interested in being able to choose how they wanted to ride than appearances. Mr Landis had managed to build these almost as light as their other saddles, so they were a fraction of the weight of other side saddles.

To save them the time it would take to hunt up the other items they'd need for their side saddle tack, Sarah had prevailed upon Uncle Sam to send someone out to acquire a dozen whalebone ladies hunting crops and a dozen double rein bridles with side saddle length reins for them.

The man Uncle Sam sent had been with him since the war and therefore he had a good understanding of what Sarah would want, so the hunting crops he obtained were exactly what she'd had in mind, while the double rein bridles that he'd picked up were quite interesting (and quite to her taste as well). They were quite neat items that had two attachment points for the curb rein, which meant that for well trained mounts, such as theirs, the attachment point generating less leverage could be used, which would be kinder for their mules.

Ellie was rather frightened the first time Sarah put her up on Blackbird, even though she was riding astride at first, because Blackbird was a hand and a half higher than any of the horses Ellie had ridden, and it felt more than that as she looked at how far from the ground she seemed to be. Sarah had chosen Blackbird for Ellie because even though she was Bruja's cousin, she was the most sweet tempered of the mules though, and Ellie soon settled down and began enjoying herself on her. Her panic returned when Sarah made her ride aside of course, but she was becoming comfortable with Blackbird by then, so she got over it quickly.

Once everyone was comfortable with the mules and vice versa, and nearly all of what they deemed to be the Daemon's significant holdings had been transferred over to Memphis Trading, they notified Uncle Sam that they'd be coming to Washington to discuss details of the assignments that he wanted them to do.

* * *

With that, they packed up their apartments, locking away anything sensitive or valuable in the vault, arranged for the hotel and horse cars they'd need to get them all to Washington, and began their journey.

When they arrived in Washington, their first stop was the Cranston Farm, as half of the mules were to be staying out there for as long as they were in Washington. The mares were excited to see them, as they seemed to be missing the attention they were used to. After talking about it with General Cranston, the General said that he'd be delighted to make sure that they were ridden and given attention, because as an old cavalry officer he could truly appreciate what lovely horses they were.

The original plan had been for Diablo, Bruja, Demonio and Belus to be among the mules staying out at the farm, as they expected to be tied up in meetings with Uncle Sam most of the time, but that changed when they saw how the mares reacted to seeing them. This meant that Nyx's children stayed in the President's House stables so that they could get out for a ride when they had a chance (well, Agenor and Herja were at a livery stable next to the hotel where the men were staying).

Uncle Sam was actually quite pleased with this development, because his interest in these mules had been piqued when the horse scout first told him about them. And while he'd been out to the Cranston Farm to see the mares, this was his first chance to see these mules that had horse experts so excited.

When they managed to drag him away from the stables, they sat down to talk about where he wanted them to go, but before he said anything, Uncle Sam asked Chuck about _his_ plans.

"Charles, I haven't forgotten what Sarah told me the first time you were here about your quest. The way I see it, if we both have an interest in a given area, there's no reason why you shouldn't pursue what you're after while you're there. Where had you intended to head first for your quest?"

"Colorado, Sir."

The President smiled at him. "It's only family here son, now that you've taken this little hellion off my hands (waving at Sarah), I think you can call me Uncle Sam, don't you?"

That drew snorts from half the people in the room and Chuck smiled. Sarah glowered at Uncle Sam, but he just looked amused as he continued.

"This could work out quite well actually, because our information is that this Culper Ring is trying to take big bites out of the gold and silver mining interests out there. We have people in Denver, but they don't seem to have made any headway on the matter at all. Do you think that you could look into it for me and see if your voices can tell us anything about what's going on out there?"

He stopped as he realised that he'd let Chuck's secret slip, but Chuck waved it away.

"It's all right Sir, I've already told Tom and Andy. They were going to work out something was off sooner or later so I decided that the best approach was to just come out and tell them."

The President nodded. "That was a good decision on your part Charles, thank you."

He turned to Tom and Andy. "I'm sure I don't need to say this gentlemen, but I will anyway, under _no_ circumstances is this to be shared with _anyone_ outside the group who know the secret, is that understood?"

Both Tom and Andy nodded, saying. "Yes. Sir."

Uncle Sam nodded, and then turned back to Chuck "So Charles, can you help us out in Colorado?"

"Yes s.. Uncle Sam, I'll see what we can find out, and what we can do to interfere with their plans there. Actually, if we can get in there quick enough, we should be able to buy what they're after out from under them."

Uncle Sam stared at him with raised eyebrows and he kicked himself for letting that slip. Knowing that he had to tell him something now he went on.

"Some of the backers of the Memphis Trading Company are friends of the family and are prepared to front the money for deals of this nature. It was agreed that so long as the investments we make are profitable to them, we will not be required to repay the money used. This arrangement has been proving beneficial to both sides to date and it is allowing us to operate in areas that would not otherwise have been possible."

He glanced at Sarah before continuing.

"But before we go Sir, we need to work out how to handle the private portion of our trip to Colorado. We have the agreement that John will be coming with us, but what will Tom and his team be doing while we go off to do this for months on end, and how are we meant to met up with them again afterwards?"

Uncle Sam's expression had turned thoughtful, perhaps even suspicious, when Chuck mentioned Memphis Trading, and he frowned when Chuck mentioned going off for months on end, but he shook his head.

"The team will not be broken up son, Major Paterson and his men's prime responsibility is to keep this team safe, under any circumstances, and they've been removed from all other duties for that purpose. As you've proven enough times already, and the Culper Ring have confirmed by coming after you the way they have, your team is the best weapon we have against them. Therefore, where you go, Major Paterson and his men go, for however long it takes."

Chuck looked at him for a long moment, then said. "Thank you Sir."

President Grant took a satchel from his desk drawer and slid it across the desk to Chuck.

"This is what we have on the Culper Rings' believed activities in Colorado. Now, you're all coming to dinner tonight?" (they nodded, though John, Tom and Andy were hesitant) "Good, we can pick this up tomorrow then, I do have other business that I need to address now."

* * *

With that, they said their goodbyes and left. Sarah and Chuck went back to their room to get changed for a ride, and Chuck locked the satchel away in one of the trunks (while appearing nothing out of the ordinary on the outside, their metal construction and Chuck's locks meant that anyone would have a hell of a time trying to break into them) before they went down to saddle Diablo and Bruja and wait for John, Tom and the others to join them.

Ellie was content to find other things to do, and they smiled when Andy said that he'd stay to keep an eye on things (he and Ellie were getting quite close, but it seemed that they were the only ones who weren't seeing it), so it was only Nyx's children and their riders who took out.

The group caught many an eye as they ambled down the street, with the six big, magnificent black mules high stepping along as they carried the five tall, imposing men and Sarah, who never had any trouble catching eyes with her beauty.

They were talking easily as they ambled along, weaving through the slower riders and conveyances on the road (which was anyone else on the road, essentially). As they had a few hours free, Chuck suggested that they head out to the Cranston Farm to check on the mares and the other mules and after a quick discussion on the matter, the others agreed.

With that, Sarah laughed and nudged Bruja to take off in the _paso largo,_ her skirts flying behind her (after all, Washington was regarded as 'civilised', so she had to ride side saddle there). Chuck signalled Diablo to take off after them in the same gait, laughing as well, and soon, all six of them were flying along the road at several times the speed of most everyone else on the road, leaving laughter (their's) and curses (everyone else's) in their wake.

Out at the farm, the mares and mules were glad to see them, and they quickly saddled six of the mares to take a ride (on the farm, Sarah could get away with riding astride, which was a good thing as they only had 'normal' saddles for the mares).

They spent a relaxing and pleasant hour ambling about the farm on the mares, then took them back to their paddock to rub them down before heading back into town on their mules, though at less of a breakneck pace than their ride out.

The pleasant afternoon had them all in a good mood for dinner (so much so that Ellie and Andy found themselves wishing that they'd gone along), which made dinner in turn an easy, comfortable event.

 **A/N: While I expect that few are interested in all the horse and donkey references here, in case anyone is, here is an explanation for some of what's in this chapter.**

 **Paso Fino horses are a gaited breed** **from** **Puerto Rico** **and** **Columbia.** **They are** **a** **lively breed** **with good endurance** **.** **For the sake of argument, Rico was one of the larger Paso Finos.**

 **Frisian, or Friesian, horses are a large, black, warm blooded breed from Friesland that is magnificent and spirited. They were believed to have been popular as knights' steeds and are depicted as such in many movies, Lady Hawk was one.**

 **Pega donkeys are a gaited breed from Brazil. In addition to being gaited, they are an intelligent, attractive breed that doesn't have as much of the heavy 'jug headed' look as many donkeys do.**

 **Mammoth donkeys are a large, strong breed that were developed for heavy work in America.**

 ** _paso largo_ is a gait of the Paso Finos that is quite fast, the equivalent of a canter or slow gallop at 25-30 mph.**

 **NB: The Romani are gypsies, and as travellers they were often distrusted on the basis of their not being from 'around here'.**


	8. Into The Field

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.**

After dinner, Chuck wasn't happy when Uncle Sam all but insisted that they should leave the ladies to chat in the drawing room while the men retired to his parlour, but he wasn't in a position to argue when John, Tom and Andy agreed.

It wasn't long after they'd settled down with whiskey and cigars (for those who chose to partake) that Uncle Sam's true purpose came out.

"So, the Memphis Trading Company? I hear that Tolbert, Ives and Jager is handling them? Young Samuel Walton is doing well for himself, to be a junior partner in a firm that's handling that kind of money."

John and the others froze at that, but Chuck just put his tumbler down and asked in a chill voice. "Is there anything in particular you'd like to ask Mister President, or may we be excused? We must be going if we are to find lodgings for the night."

The President gave an awed chuckle. "I never thought that I'd actually see the true face of the Hero of Cripple Creek but yes, now I can see the man who bested a short battalion _and_ the Bear. You're a very impressive man Charles."

Chuck stood at that, continuing in the same voice. "If that will be all Mister President, we must be going." He waved to the others to stand.

The President realised that this wasn't going at all the way he'd planned and hastily cried.

"Charles. Stop. Please! Julia will cry me to death if you and Sarah leave. I meant what I said earlier, we _ARE_ family now that you've married our girl! Will you please just sit down and talk this out?"

Chuck looked at him for about thirty seconds and then sat down, but he didn't say a word, and nor did his expression change. President Grant knew that he had to fix this, and fix it fast, if he wasn't to lose them.

"With all this Culper Ring activity, when Memphis Trading suddenly appeared and started moving about vast amounts of money. It raised suspicions and we started investigating it, because another Rockefeller doesn't just spring up overnight, something has to be behind it. You can imagine my surprise when we looked into the law firm handling all its business and found that the junior partner was in fact Sarah's alter ego, Samuel Walton."

"When our people looked into it further, there were questions raised when it was determined that, other than the meetings to establish the practice, no-one could remember seeing Tolbert, Ives or Jager in nearly a year or more. I knew when I saw the name Samuel Walton that the Memphis Trading Company didn't have anything to do with the Culper Ring though, so I shut down all the investigations. I must admit, however, to being mighty interested in how you came by that kind of money."

Chuck looked at him, still not saying a word, then turned to look at John. He nodded and encouraged him to talk, so he turned back to the President.

"Mr President, have you heard of Daemons?"

"Demons? Yes of course I've heard of them!"

"No, not Demons, Daemons, perhaps you know of them as Vampires?"

"Vampires? They're just stories to frighten children."

"I'm afraid not. You see, it was one of them who killed my parents. Mama had fought back and wounded the creature badly with a kitchen knife, so when I arrived it tried to take over my body to replace its own damaged body. I'd picked up my father's cutlass as I came into the house though and I managed to stab it through the heart and kill it when it tried. As died however, it was as though a floodgate opened and everything that was in it, its energy and all of its memories, just poured into me. I was sure I was going crazy, and I do not know how I avoided doing so, but that is where the information I'm getting is coming from, the memories of its victims."

"You see, when it sucked the life out of them, it sucked all of their memories out of them as well, so I have the memories of all those people in my head now. That creature operated for five thousand years or more and it killed for enjoyment, so it did so a lot. I have no way of knowing how many victims there were, but they have to number in the hundreds of thousands."

He glanced at the President "Tolbert, Ives and Jager were among them by the way. Anyway, that's where the money came from. Whether from inherent greed, its need for trophies or whatever, whenever it killed someone, it took whatever they had, rich or poor, so the money that's now in Memphis Trading is the fortune that it accumulated by doing that for five thousand years."

The President stared at Chuck in shock, incapable of believing what he was hearing.

Chuck swore. "John, Tom, come on, we're getting out of here!"

The President came to his senses at that. "No, Chuck, wait, we can talk about this!"

"That's not what I'm seeing in your face Mister President, I'm seeing fear and doubt and disbelief, none of which bodes well for me. Sarah won't stand aside and let anything happen to me, so that places her at risk as well, not to mention Ellie. The only path I can see out of this is to put you to sleep for long enough for us to get away. Don't worry, the worst you'll get from it is a headache when you wake up in six or seven hours….."

He trailed off because the fear, disbelief and doubt had dropped from the President's face, to be replaced with wonder. The President spoke.

"You can, you can do that, I can see it in your face, and that you're only doing this is to protect Sarah and your sister as well. I can understand what Sarah sees in you now, the tales of Cripple Creek told of a great soldier, but you are in truth so much more than that."

"This, putting me to sleep thing, that could only have come from some far off exotic land, and probably another time?" Chuck nodded guardedly.

"So the only way you could know this is via these memories you say you now have from this…. Daemon?" Chuck nodded again, not relaxing.

The President smiled sadly.

"Don't worry about me son, you've convinced me. It will be a long time, if ever, before this old head of mine can understand what you've told me, but I believe that it is the truth."

He looked at the others and realised that they weren't looking shocked, so this obviously wasn't news to them.

"I take it that John, Tom and Andrew already knew this?"

Chuck nodded. "Yes Sir, as I said, sooner or later they would have worked out that things were off so the best way to keep the secret was to tell them the truth."

The President nodded in understanding, then looked at him.

"Now that you've told us all the secret, can you tell us what this quest of your's is?"

Chuck hesitated and then nodded. "I have fears that some part of that creature may be inside of me, but in its memories, I saw fear of the Indians and I believe that they may have some way of driving it out. So that's what my quest is, to find those Indians and with their help, ensure that every part of the creature is driven out of me, to protect Sarah, Ellie and everyone else."

The President nodded, but looked confused. "And you want to take them with you?"

Chuck shook his head. "Not by choice, I wanted to go alone, but Sarah insisted that there was no way that she'd let me go without her."

The President chuckled at that. "That sounds like our girl! But Eleanor?"

"Even before that business with the Woodcombs she decided that she wants to be with her family, and she is adamant wherever we go, she goes too."

The President nodded, then chuckled again "On that, you know that the Senate is sitting again?" (Chuck nodded, he hadn't, but that was immaterial.) "Woodcomb is still showing many signs of the beating she gave him, so I asked him about his injuries and he told a wild tale of being set upon by a gang of street thugs."

"You should have seen how white he went when I commented on how Boston must be becoming a dangerous place, as I'd recently heard the story of a friend's daughter being attacked by her ex beau's father, and said how proud we were to hear that she'd beaten the hell out of the pig. He excused himself soon after that and has been giving excuses for not attending ever since."

Tom and John laughed at that, but Andy looked concerned. Chuck smiled at him. "Don't worry Andy, she's fine. We were there, Woodcomb thought she'd be easy pickings while Sarah, John and I were fighting off his gang of thugs, but we had been training Ellie, so she escaped his grasp easily and then beat the hell out of him, she was more hurt by what his wife said to her."

John spoke up with satisfaction at that. "And Sarah dealt with _that_!"

Chuck smiled again. "That she did!"

The President turned serious then, asking Chuck. "Are we still family Charles, do you trust me?"

Chuck nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Thank you, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I'd ruined that."

With that, they decided not to chance anything else going wrong and rejoined the ladies.

As they entered the drawing room, however, Sarah's eagle eye picked up the remaining traces of tension, and something about the way that Uncle John was glancing at Chuck, so she asked him to help her find something that they'd been talking about.

As soon as they were out of the room, of course, she pushed him into the first empty room and demanded that he tell her what had happened in the parlour.

"The President knew about Memphis Trading, Tolbert, Ives and Jager, and that you're the junior partner who runs the firm. He tried to push Chuck into spilling everything, but Chuck just stared him down and said that we were leaving. That made the President to a turnabout and beg him to stay, to talk."

"He explained how the sudden appearance and growth of Memphis Trading had attracted enough attention to start an investigation, and when they looked into Tolbert, Ives and Jager he'd seen your name, Sam Walton's name. He knew then that it wasn't the Culper Ring like they'd been thinking, so he stopped the investigation, but he asked Chuck where all that money had came from. I nudged Chuck to tell the truth, as I thought that it would be OK, but I was wrong."

"The President didn't take it well, at all. Chuck saw what was written all over his face and told me we were going. The President tried to say that it was all right, but Chuck called him on it, telling him what he could read on his face, and that he'd just put him to sleep long enough for us to get away, and that would be it."

"That was actually what it took to convince the President, as he realised that the only way Chuck could know how to do that was if what he was saying was true. They managed to sort things out after that, and we decided to rejoin you ladies before anything else could go wrong."

Sarah stretched up and kissed him on the cheek, saying "Thank you Uncle John." but she still looked angry and determined as they headed back into the drawing room.

It was obvious that something was up when Sarah returned to the drawing room so quickly with a stormy expression, but without the item she'd supposedly gone to get. She fixed Uncle Sam with a look that made him cringe before going to Chuck to kiss him. While the men obviously knew what was going on, no-one was saying anything, so Aunt Julia turned to Uncle Sam and asked. "What did you do?"

Chuck spoke up "Aunt Julia, it's all right, it's been resolved."

She fixed him with a look at that. "By which you mean that there _was_ an issue in there Charles! Going by Sarah's expression it was no small thing either, perhaps it might have even been serious enough to make you leave?"

Chuck looked away and she rounded on Uncle Sam. "Ulysses Simpson Grant! If you do anything to drive them away…. Well you better be prepared to have the staff move all your things to another room, because that will be where you'll be from now on!"

Uncle Sam hung his head. "Yes, Julia."

Sarah went to Aunt Julia and embraced her. They stayed with their arms about each other for a while, then Sarah looked up and said. "I believe that we have had enough excitement for the night, husband, are you ready to retire?"

Chuck smiled. "Yes, wife."

With that she kissed Aunt Julia on the cheek, bid everyone goodnight, took Chuck's hand and they departed.

* * *

Early in the morning, Chuck carefully slipped out of bed to avoid waking Sarah, dressed quietly and, taking the satchel that Uncle Sam had passed to him the previous day, slipped out to find somewhere to start going through the contents of the satchel.

He chose the dining room, thinking that no-one would be about, but he'd hardly sat down before one of the servants appeared to ask what he would like for breakfast. Chuck shook his head, thinking that they must have been on duty well before dawn, considering that the sun was just rising. He asked if he might get some coffee if that wasn't too much trouble, adding that he'd wait to have breakfast with everyone else when they were up.

The man nodded and turned to leave, but Chuck stopped him. "Sorry, but if it isn't too much trouble, do you think someone might be able to rustle me up a pen and ink and some paper? A pencil would be fine if pen and ink's a problem."

The man smiled and said that he'd see to it in a jiffy, thinking as he was leaving what a nice young man this was, so much more polite than President Grant's sons, especially Mister Frederick. He remembered him from the first time he'd been here with Miss Sarah. Yes, there'd been talk about her going to his room that first night, but he'd married her right smart and he obviously made her happy, and that made him a good man in his eyes. They all agreed that Miss Sarah had made a right good choice to marry this one.

True to his word, he returned with the pen and ink and paper (and pencil) before the coffee arrived, and Mr Charles thanked him right nicely, just as he did the girl who'd brought his coffee. Yep, Miss Sarah had found herself a good one here!

Chuck had been going through the papers and noting whatever came to mind as he did so for about an hour when Sarah appeared in her robe, looking utterly adorable with her sleepy face and bed tousled hair. Her voice was still sleepy as she sat in Chuck's lap and said "Why didn't you wake me? You know I don't like waking up without you." but it was in an entirely different tone of voice not twenty seconds later that she asked, without turning around, "Would you care to bet I can't pin that slack jawed grin of your's shut with that fruit knife Uncle John?"

John had been sitting there for half an hour, discussing what Chuck had come up with from the paperwork, but he hadn't noticed that knife sitting right there until she mentioned it. He kicked himself for thinking that Sarah Walker would ever miss anything. "No. No, I'm sure you could, if you wanted to."

She nodded without turning around, holding her hand out for the sheets that Chuck had been compiling, giving him a kiss and a sweet "Thank you Honey" as he handed them to her. He couldn't work with her in his lap like that, so he reached for his coffee cup, content to resign himself to holding her.

Of course, before he could get the cup to his mouth, she'd intercepted it to steal a sip. When she handed it back with a bright smile and a kiss, he just laughed and relaxed with his arm around her.

They were all still sitting there in the same positions, discussing the information and Chuck's notes about half an hour later when Aunt Julia came bustling in, exclaiming. "Sarah! What are you doing, out here in your robe and nightgown like that? Go and get yourself properly dressed child!"

Sarah smiled fondly at her, saying "Yes, Aunt Julia" and going to do as she was bidden.

Chuck was the next target. "Charles dear, could you clear these papers away, please, so that we may have breakfast served?"

He responded with "Yes, Aunt Julia" as he began to quickly get the papers in order and place them in the satchel.

Ten minutes later, Sarah was back, dressed as ordered, and they sat down for breakfast.

They went straight to Uncle Sam's office from the breakfast table, to get in before he got mired down in his usual business. Their meeting took two hours to go over what they'd come up with so far (pointing out that the others hadn't had a chance to go through the material yet, and they may have additional input), and get clarification as to what Uncle Sam wanted from them in Colorado.

The train was organised to take them to Colorado before they left Uncle Sam's office, as with two Pullman's Hotel cars, five of the big ten stall horse cars and a baggage car, they had quite enough for a full train, so they just negotiated for a loco and baggage car, along with the loco crews for each section between Washington and Denver.

They'd been holding the Hotel cars and horse cars there in Washington, as there was no point in releasing them when they'd be needing them again when they moved on inside a week at most, so there was hardly any delay in getting the train ready, and the railroad company advised that their train could leave first thing in the morning.

* * *

Early in the morning, some of the troopers went out to collect the mules from Cranston farm, and they were waiting at the train when the rest arrived with their 'luggage' and the other mules. About half of this was indeed luggage, but much of the other half was weapons and ammunition, including the now clockwork driven Gatling gun and additional weapons for both the team and the troop. A few of the larger trunks, however, were filled with spare tack, collars and harnesses for the mules (also made by Mr Landis), so they'd have harnesses that fit them comfortably to hitch them up to wagons or carriages where required.

They had little trouble getting everything loaded before the train was due to depart. The mules were loaded last, and as had already become the standard practice, Nyx's children were in the first horse car, though now they'd now been joined by Ellie's Blackbird, Andy's Midnight, Bill's Zareo and Ben's Othello. Rather than waste time arguing, Chuck let Sarah lead Bruja into the car herself, as there wasn't anyone around to comment how it wasn't proper for a lady to be doing that at that time of the morning.

They weren't much out of Washington when they sat the men down to talk about the roles that they were going to be expected to play in Colorado. Given that six people turning up with thirty two well armed guards would be regarded as suspicious and would undoubtedly attract the law's attention, at least half of the men would be expected to play the role of mining experts. That meant that school was starting now, and would continue until they could play the role convincingly, or they reached Denver, whichever came first.

As Chuck was discussing this, he turned to the four black troopers in the group. "Elijah, Moses, Ezra, Isaiah, I hate to ask this of you, but it would be more believable if a group such as our's had servants with them, and unfortunately most will expect you to be them. Would you mind playing that role when we're around other people?"

Elijah glanced at the others and when they nodded, smiled and answered Chuck. "No Colonel Barton, we's all got our roles to play, and we knows with you this is just an act for other folk."

Chuck nodded again "Thank you Elijah, but that brings up something else, of course we can't mention anyone's rank around other people, so from here on it will have to be 'Mister Barton', 'Mister Casey' and so on, or 'Boss' if you want to risk a clout about the head, and of course 'Miss Sarah' and 'Miss Ellie'. All of you will be addressed by your first or last names, with 'Mister' if we use your last names, is everyone OK with that?"

That got him a chorus of cheerful "Yes Boss!"es, so Chuck felt duty bound to cuff Ben, who was nearest to him, across the head.

After they'd finished the discussion, Sarah pulled Elijah aside and asked whether he and the others were really OK with playing servants (they'd all been slaves before the war, and that couldn't be something that they'd want to revisit).

Elijah smiled at her. "Yes, we's sure Miss Sarah, we knows that Col..Mister Barton don't look at us that way, that none of you do, and like I said, it's just a role that we's gotta play, just like everyone else."

He glanced Chuck's way. "Besides, we's heard the stories they tell about what Mr Barton did in the war, and how he joined up at thirteen to fight for us because he believed slavery was wrong. We knows other folk who joined up that young, but that was 'cause they had no choice, not 'cause they were fightin' for somethin' they believed in, so me and the boys is happy to do this for Mister Barton!"

Sarah smiled and squeezed his shoulder at that. As she was about to leave, though, Elijah stopped her. "Miss Sarah?"

"Yes Elijah?"

"I ain't talked 'bout this Ma'am, but I was a house slave back on the plantation. The old master, he was a kindly gent an' he musta seen somethin' in me, 'cause he had me trained as a valet from when I was just a boy. Then, when I was a bit older, he put me with Isaac, the butler at the big house, so he could train me up to replace him when he was sent off to enjoy his 'well earned rest' as the master called it. What I'm gettin' at Miss Sarah is that I knows my house staff, and I'm sorry but I have ta tell you that Mister Barton's missed somethin' big."

"What do you mean Elijah?"

"Folk are gunna be askin' why you an' Miss Ellie is travellin' without no ladies' maid Miss Sarah."

Sarah looked at him, groaning as she realised that he was right, and muttering. "Damn!"

"But there's maybe a fix for that."

"What?"

"It's Adele, Miss Sarah, she knows enough to be a proper ladies' maid, an' I reckon if you asked her, she'd be right happy to come with us."

Sarah frowned, she didn't like the way he said that last. "What do you mean by that Elijah?"

"Well we got to talkin', and she was sayin' how much she liked workin' our car, 'cause we's all polite to her, while other men try to take liberties with her when she's workin'. She told me how last week she only just got away when one of them had her down on the bed in one of the compartments, but someone else came bangin' on the door and hollerin' for her to something for him, and she ran out when the man opened the door."

Sarah's face hardened at this story, as she'd been in similar situations herself too many times.

"Thank you Elijah, I will talk to Adele. You're right, I think she'll be wonderful, and no woman should have to have to put up with that!" She hugged him, making him blush, and went looking for Adele.

She found her talking to Ellie in her compartment, which was perfect, so she went in and closed the door. Adele went to stand and leave, but Sarah waved her back down saying "No Adele, please sit, we want to talk to you."

That got her a 'we do?' look from Ellie, and she nodded as she started.

"I expect that you've heard what we're going to Denver for, haven't you Adele?"

"Oh I wasn't listenin' in Miss Sarah..."

Sarah cut her off "I didn't think you were Adele, but you can hardly be around without hearing things, now can you?"

Adele shook her head, looking worried, and Sarah smiled at her.

"The thing is, Elijah pointed out an error Chuck made."

Ellie looked at her and she nodded again. "And that's the fact that ladies, such as we're supposed to be, would never travel like this without at least one ladies' maid."

It was Ellie's turn to groan in dismay as she realised that this was right.

"Elijah also pointed out that you could be a ladies' maid for us if you chose to, and suggested that you may be agreeable to coming along with us if we asked? I hope you will, because we want you with us and Elijah told me what happened last week. You should never have to put up with that, and I hope you know that won't happen with us?"

Adele just stared at her, too shocked to talk, until Sarah asked. "Will you come with us Adele, to play our ladies' maid when we need one for appearances, and be our wonderful cook the rest of the time?"

Adele was in tears as she nodded, finally managing to say. "Yes Miss Sarah, I'd like that right well."

Sarah embraced her and kissed her on the cheek, then went to tell Chuck about the new addition to their group, and point out that Elijah had not only pointed out his oversight, but he'd also come up with the solution for them.

Adele had been an experiment on the part of the Pullman's Palace Car Company. All of the hotel cars had cooks who also had other duties, but all the Pullman's staff were men, and they thought that ladies might rather be attended by women. That was why, when Adele applied for a job as a cook when she came north to get away from her slave background, and she told them that she was also a ladies' maid, they took her on as an experiment, to see whether it worked out.

Adele was quite popular with the ladies, because she was in fact a very good ladies' maid, and in general because she was incredible cook, no-one could believe what she could accomplish with the limited facilities in the tiny kitchens on the cars.

However, she was also popular with men for another reason, and that was where her problems came from, because Adele was a statuesque Creole beauty of mixed race and many men desired her. Too many men still believed that they had the right to take what they wanted, just as the master had when she was a slave, which had left her in fear of what would happen to her much of the time, but that was now in the past.

They'd need to get her more clothes, but her uniform for the train would be enough for when they arrived in Denver, and she and Ellie were happy to share a room at the hotel.

Adele was taken aback, though, when Sarah put a .38 revolver in her hands and asked her whether she knew how to use it? Adele tried to put it down, but Sarah stopped her. "Adele, we lead a dangerous life, and we can't take you with us unless you're able to protect yourself. These" (touching the revolver) "are what Chuck made for Ellie so that she could protect herself back when she was a doctor, before she joined us in this life. I will be happier when you can use these as well" (showing her one of her .46s) "but you can work up to that, just like Ellie did."

Adele looked at Ellie at that, and she nodded, showing her her own .46.

Sarah looked at Adele and said "I presume that you don't know how to use a revolver?"

Adele shook her head, wide eyed, but Sarah smiled at her. "That's all right, we will teach you. Now, when this (indicating a button on the side) is this way, the gun won't fire, when you push it the other way it will."

She put the revolver into one of the little holsters that Chuck made for them and handed it to her. "Put that in your pocket for now and we'll deal with the rest later."

As it turned out, John, Hank and Jerry knew a thing or two about mining, so they assisted Chuck with the more basic lessons. About ten of the men showed no head for it at all, so they were designated as the core of the guards and excused from the lessons while they concentrated on the rest of them.

Sarah and Ellie were only half listening at the start (as the 'womenfolk', they weren't expected to know about these things), but the deeper that Chuck delved into the subject, the more interested they became in what he was teaching.

It soon got to the point where they sat in on every lesson (as did Tom, Andy, John, Hank and Jerry, and Elijah and the others, as they were all interested in the subject, and the information that Chuck was dishing out had by then gone way beyond what their previous mining experts knew).

* * *

Time on this train journey was divided between their lessons in mining arcana, caring for and giving the mules attention, and relaxing. It was the first time that many of them had come through here, and they were in rapture at the vistas the countryside presented to them as they headed for Denver, so much so that most of them spent much of their free time perched atop the horse cars, just taking it in.

Even John joined them up there at times, and the way he pointed out items of interest along the way showed he'd been out here before, though he was still unprepared to talk about his past. The further west they went, the quieter he got, so obviously he had some bad memories to do with the areas they were heading towards.

Whenever the train stopped to take on coal and water (at least once or twice a day), they'd unload their mules and take them for a quick ride, or at least walk them around for a while, to give them a break from the horse cars before loading them back on.

Sarah and Chuck were still keeping Ellie's fighting training up as well (adding Adele in as well now), but given the confines of the Railroad cars, they concentrated on knife work now. Ellie asked how Sarah learned this, not a little awed by her sister-in-law's abilities, and Sarah laughed, saying that most of it, she'd been taught as a girl. "Do you remember how I told you that Oncle Henri taught me Savate so I'd be able to protect myself?" (Ellie nodded) "Well I had another 'uncle' down there who was good with knives, Oncle Andre, and he taught me all about knives for the same reason."

Ellie looked at her, a little confused "I thought that these people were confidence artists Sarah, why did they need all these fighting skills?" Sarah laughed again "That was why Ellie, you see in that game, there's always a possibility of the situation unravelling and ending up in the need to run, or fight..." but a frown crossed her face as she continued "Especially if my father was around!" Ellie could see that upset her, but had to ask. "Why, what do you mean?"

Sarah sighed "Well my father was a confidence man, but while he wasn't a very good one, he believed he was too good to follow the rules that 'the family', as those in the game down there called themselves, imposed on activities in New Orleans. As a result, he tended to play fast and loose around town and often ended up with people chasing him, and he led them straight to the family when he ran."

"That was why, when the problem had been dealt with, we'd invariably be asked to leave town, until the next time he managed to wheedle one of the ladies into convincing the others to let us return. Papa was quite the charmer, you see, and a number of the ladies in the family were quite fond of him." She shook her head "Anyway, that is how I learned about knives."

Ellie nodded sadly. Chuck wrapped his arms around Sarah and kissed her on the top of the head, and she looked up at him with a smile, stretching up to kiss him. Her husband always seemed to know what she needed when she was upset.

As they got closer to Denver, they went into more detail on the acts that everyone were going to play. Chuck was laying out what he saw as the most logical plan "We'll go in as investors with money, looking to buy into the mining interests, the train will help there, as I doubt we'll be in town long before people start talking about the train that came in that was nothing but Pullman cars and expensive horse cars."

"John, Tom, Andy and I will play the buyers, Sarah is my wife, and Ellie my sister. Andy, could you also play Ellie's beau, please? I'd be more comfortable knowing that someone's at her side at all times." Andy nodded "Of course, it'd be my pleasure."

"Now for clothes, we'll" (waving around the core team, Tom and Andy) "have to be formal most of the time, and I'm afraid, so will you." (looking at Elijah and the others) "The rest of you will dress as, merchants, I suppose you'd call it, business men, but you still have to work for a living, you don't just sit around ordering other people about" he grinned, adding "That's our job!"

"Now, I expect as soon as we arrive in this train, check into the best hotel in town and visit the bank to confirm that our letters of credit are all in order, we'll be invited to all the functions in town so people can try to get a bite at our money, probably on the first night. We'll be expected to have guards and servants, but I doubt they'll be able to get any closer than the foyer, or the servants' areas out back, so we'll" (waving around again) "probably be all we have inside."

Sarah glowered at him when he mentioned that they'd probably be attending a function on the first night. Chuck looked at her, confused. "We'll all have to get dressed up, including Elijah and the others, to make the right impression on the society crowd, you know that."

"Don't even try to compare throwing on your good coat and duds with the work that Ellie and I will have to do, the dress, the hair, the makeup, we can't just throw some clothes on and drag a comb through our hair to look great..."

When Chuck interrupted her at that point with "Oh yes you can!", she glared at him, but melted as he smiled at her, because just as she owned him and he'd do anything for her, he owned her, heart and soul.

* * *

By the time they arrived in Denver, they were ready, Sarah and Ellie were in nice travelling dresses, Chuck, John, Tom and Andy were upmarket travelling suits and Adele, Elijah, Moses, Ezra and Isaiah were dressed for their parts, while the rest of the men were in more modest business suits.

As planned, Chuck and the rest of the core team went straight to the hotel, the best in town, and signed the party in, the bookings having been made from Washington. Chuck lambasted the manager for the error when they didn't have Ellie and Adele's room booking right, which sent him scuttling off to fix it straight away. They would have felt guilty about treating him like this to cover up the hole in their plans if he hadn't been such a pompous fool.

While they did that, the men got their mules settled into the livery stable that they'd arranged back in Washington (making sure that no-one would interfere with them), asked about somewhere they could hire or borrow a couple of carriages, and moved their luggage to the hotel.

With Sarah, Ellie and Adele settled into their suite at the hotel with Andy, Elijah and the others to guard them, Chuck, John and Tom went to the bank to confirm that all the necessary arrangements had been made for their letters of credit, and as Chuck had predicted, by the time they got back to the hotel, the first of their invitations had arrived.

They also sent a telegram to the Pullman Palace Car Company to advise that they would be taking over Adele's services for an unspecified period to look after the ladies in their group.

Sarah was still unhappy with Chuck for putting her and Ellie through this, but she was in the bath as the first part of her preparations to get ready when he returned. Adele showed him the invitation and he asked her quietly how angry Sarah was? She smiled and said "Only two glasses of champagne so far Mister Chuck."

Chuck smiled at that and went to the bathroom to see Sarah, sitting on the chair beside the bath and kissing her on the head. She tilted her face up to get a proper kiss and told him. "You're lucky I love you!"

His reply of "Yes, I am!" got him another kiss and a smile.

He put aside his coat and collar and rolled up his shirt sleeves to wash Sarah's back as they talked.

"Have the local Secret Service agents contacted us yet?" Sarah shook her head with a frown "No, not a word, it seems that everyone else in Denver has contacted us, but not the ones who were told to expect us!"

Adele's eyes went wide as she was helping Sarah and Ellie dress and saw the weapons that they were secreting around their persons, two of the .38 revolvers, three of the .46 derringers and at least half a dozen knives each.

In New York, Chuck had given Sarah information which helped her track down a talented seamstress of dubious character who's speciality was devising garments that were meant to carry things undetected (mostly for pickpockets, thieves and the like), and she'd induced her to make up an array of dresses for all occasions for her and Ellie that would allow them to carry the .38s, derringers and knives undetected.

Unfortunately, the woman's talents hadn't extended so far as to be able to hide their .46 revolvers in their evening dresses, so they could only carry the lighter weapons with them. She _did_ , however, devise travelling split skirts with leather supporting harnesses and holsters sewn in to take their .46 recolvers, as well as jackets for them, and the men, with similar supporting harnesses and holsters (along with large and small knife sheaths), and they were cut to make the revolvers etc all but undetectable to casual observation. It had taken Sarah and Ellie quite a bit of practice before they could walk, stand and sit in those skirts without the revolvers showing in some way, but they mastered it with time.

Much of Chuck, John, Tom and Andy's wardrobe had also been made by this woman, and Hank, Bill, Ben, Weed and some of the others had jackets from her as well. She hadn't wanted to deal with them at first, but it was made clear to her that she had no choice in the matter. Sarah secured her ongoing services by convincing her that she was safe, so long as she dealt straight with them. The fact that they paid considerably more than her usual customers for a good job made her eventually come to embrace them as her favourite customers.

Adele was shaking her head when Sarah and Ellie were ready to leave for the function, as they both looked lovely, and if you hadn't seen them loading up with all those weapons, you'd never believe that they were anywhere near as heavily armed as they were. She also saw that Chuck was carrying similar weapons when he checked them before they left.

She was taken aback when Sarah, Chuck and Ellie all hugged her as they left, but she also felt good, safe. It was taking time, but she was coming to accept that she was part of these people now, part of this family.

Downstairs in the lobby, they greeted the others, then they went out to see what the boys had managed to dig up for carriages. They were surprised by what they'd managed to organise in a few hours, but to keep up the act they just nodded grudgingly to indicate that these were acceptable. The boys could read their expressions though and were happy with their reaction.

What they'd come up with were a landau and a barouche, and with Belus, Zareo, Midnight and Blackbird hitched to the landau and Diablo and Bruja hitched to the barouche, an escort of half a dozen riders and Ezra, Isaiah, Moses and Elijah up on the driver's seats, they'd make an impressive entrance.

Chuck handed Sarah up into the barouche and followed her in, with John behind, while Ellie, Andy, and Tom went in the Landau.

* * *

As they arrived at the home where the party was, Isaiah and Elijah hopped down to open the doors. A quick scan of the entrance showed that guards weren't going inside, so Chuck signalled Elijah and Isaiah to follow them. When the man on the door tried to bar the two from entering, Chuck started in on him, loudly informing him that they didn't go anywhere without their personal attendants, and then gesturing for the others to leave, saying. "We should have known better than to expect a civilised function out here. Come along, we'll get what business that we _have_ to do in this wretched place out of the way and head back to civilisation as soon as possible!"

This had the desired effect as the host came rushing out, saying that of _course_ their attendants would be admitted, and dismissing the man on the door. This had a double benefit, in that it both established them as those who were rich enough to expect to have their every whim met, and got Elijah and Isaiah into the ballroom with them, so that they could 'attend' them.

As they were heading into the ballroom, Sarah slipped off her jacket and handed it to Elijah, giving him a look that said 'don't get too far away' and he nodded in deference.

The affair started out pleasantly enough, until they were identified by those who'd primarily attended to have a tilt at the new arrivals, and Chuck, John, Tom and Andy were mobbed by those trying to present 'un-missible' opportunities to them.

Chuck was separated from Sarah by the men milling around him as Andy and Tom directed those trying to push outright offers at him and John, as the primary investors. He wasn't at all happy about this, but she indicated that she was fine, and he should concentrate on getting what information he could.

He agreed, against his better judgement, because Sarah knew what she was doing in this business better than he. He did look over at Andy, however, and make sure he understood that he was _not_ to leave Ellie's side under any circumstances!

Sarah exchanged looks with Chuck often as she chatted to the women present and fended off approaches from men, until she was handed a note. This note used the identifiers they'd been given for the local Secret Service people, and indicated that they had some important information for the team, giving the directions to meet them.

She looked Chuck, but he was still mired down with some man, so she handed her empty glass to Elijah, slipping the note to him as she did so and glancing at Chuck.

Elijah nodded, he knew what to do.

When Elijah suddenly appeared with a fresh drink for Chuck and surreptitiously showed him the note from Sarah, Chuck read the note while Elijah blocked it from view and immediately tried to disengage from the man who'd been monopolising his time for the past five to ten minutes.

For some reason, this man was determined not to let him leave, even going so far as to grab his arm to keep him there when he hastily said "Sorry, I simply must visit the facilities!" That was it for Chuck, and he hissed "Unhand me!" in a voice that had the man stumbling back from him in fear.

It still took him several minutes to exit the ballroom, as he could hardly move ten paces without men approaching him about investment opportunities, or women approaching him about opportunities of an entirely different nature, now that his wife wasn't in sight.

Once he finally managed to get free, he proceeded as quickly as he could without actually breaking into a run to the rendezvous point identified in the note.

As he approached the meeting point, he could hear Sarah's voice, and could tell that she wasn't happy.

"All right Jeffries, if you don't give me this information that you have _right_ _now_ , I'm going back to my husband!"

"Come on Sarah, don't be like that, we're old friends. Besides, we both know that you're not married to that milksop downstairs, this is just an assignment. For that matter, I thought you were supposed to be with that Colonel, what happened, did you manage to convince the old fool that he'd get more glory out of this if he let you work with the young one?"

"I just figured, seeing as we're up here together, we should make the most of it. I can help you, you know, me and the Chief are good friends. If you're nice to me, I might be able to convince him to get you out of this dead end assignment and onto something that can help your career. After all, you don't want to be stuck nursemaiding milksops like that until you're too old to do anything else do you? I've heard enough about you to know that you can't be satisfied with _that_! Come on, I'll give you what you need, we'll both be happy and I'll help you get out of this!"

If the man was a fraction of the spy he thought he was, Sarah's voice when she spoke again would have warned him to run, but he wasn't. "So, you don't have the information you got me up here for, you just wanted to get me alone for a bit of fun?"

At that moment, Sarah caught sight of Chuck, and he shook his head, as he could see her slipping a knife out of its sheath, even if the fool in front of her couldn't. She looked at Chuck, angry, for a while and then nodded, and Chuck made a point of coming around the corner and 'finding' them, exclaiming "Ah, there you are, I've been looking all over for you!"

The man was furious about being interrupted when he was certain that he'd just about talked her around, so he snapped at Chuck. "Sir, I was having a conversation with the lady and you are not welcome, _leave!_ "

Chuck ignored him and walked straight to Sarah. She greeted him with a kiss and Chuck asked. "So what information do they have for us, can we use it?"

Sarah looked at Jeffries with scorn. "No, he never had any information, he just wanted to get me up here for a quick hump!"

Chuck turned to look at Jeffries. "Is that true?"

"What if it is? Get out of here boy, I may send her back when I'm done with her, but if she's any good I may keep her, now go!"

Chuck took off his jacket. "I'll give you a sporting chance, you have the count of ten to get as far away as you can before I come after you."

Jeffries laughed at him. "You think I'm going to run from something like you? I'll leave you alive boy, but only so you can watch while I take her!"

Chuck turned to hand his jacket to Sarah as Jeffries took his jacket off, knowing that he'd attack while his back was turned.

When he attacked as expected, Chuck took him apart, using everything he'd used against those thugs of Woodcomb's and more. When he was done, Jeffries was broken beyond repair and Chuck leaned in to make sure he heard him. "In case you haven't worked it out yet, threatening to do anything to my wife was a fatal mistake!"

Then he turned back to Sarah, giving her a quick kiss. "Tell him what you want, but make it quick, I think I may have a way to dispose of him."

Sarah smiled grimly as she advanced on Jeffries as he was trying to get up, she slapped him to get his attention and started talking in a low but forceful voice as Chuck turned away. He heard something about Gordon and rape as he headed for the windows a little ways away.

When Chuck opened the window and looked down, he smiled grimly to himself, as he'd been right about what he'd heard earlier. For some reason the owner of this house had a sizeable pen of large dogs (they looked like they were used for hunting) beside the house, and it was directly beneath this window.

When he came back, Sarah nodded to say she was done, so he grabbed Jeffries by his shirt and trousers and lifted him easily, telling him "It's time to go, because your new friends are anxious to meet you, those poor hounds don't look like they've been fed in a week!" as he carried him to the window to toss him out, reaching up to pull the window shut and latch it.

Jeffries had been trying to say something as he was carried to the window, but he was getting quieter by the time he went out the window.

He went back to Sarah and kissed her again, wiping her tears away. Then he pulled out a kerchief and tried to dab away the damage to her makeup until she smiled and took it off him, giving him a kiss before she walked over to a window to use it as a mirror as she did what she could to fix the damage. While she did that, Chuck used Jeffries' jacket to clean up any sign of the altercation, tossing it out the window as well.

When her makeup was as good as it was going to be, Sarah returned Chuck's kerchief and they went back to the party. The first thing Chuck did was confirm that Ellie was still safe on Andy's arm, then he quietly pointed out the one who tried to stop him leaving to Sarah and asked if she knew who he was.

When she saw his face, Sarah spoke quietly, without moving her lips "Yes, he's another Secret Service agent, Fitzroy, why?"

Chuck spoke the same way as he explained the steps the man had taken to keep Chuck occupied and try to stop him going after her. Sarah tensed and was about to go at him but Chuck restrained her. "No, let's see what he does."

They watched him surreptitiously and saw when he noted that they were there, together, and looked around for Jeffries. When he didn't see him, he lit out, heading straight for where Sarah had been sent with the note. He returned about ten minutes later and had another look for Jeffries, then left altogether, probably hoping to get all the lurid details from Jeffries of what he did with her.

Ellie and Andy came over, and when Ellie saw Sarah's face she took her arm and led her to the powder room to repair the damage.

Andy asked Chuck what had happened, but wisely dropped the matter when Chuck just shook his head tersely.

In the powder room, Emilie confirmed that they were alone and then asked Sarah what happened as she worked on her makeup.

"I got a note with all the right codes that said that the local Secret Service agents had some important information for us, and to meet them upstairs. When I got up there though, it was one of Bruce Gordon's friends who'd helped him get me drunk at that party in New York so he could have me. He tried to be charming, but I just told him to give me the information he had for us, or I was going back to Chuck. He started talking about being friends and how he knew that Chuck wasn't my real husband, and how if I was nice to him.."

Emilie looked at her when she said that and Sarah nodded tersely.

"He'd talk to his friend, the boss, and get me out of nursemaiding milksops like Chuck. He said that he'd heard about me, from Gordon I presume, so he knew that I wouldn't be satisfied with someone like Chuck. I was going for my knife as I asked him to clarify what he was saying, but Chuck was there and he shook his head to stop me killing him. Then he came up, pretending to be surprised when he found us. Jeffries told him to leave, but he just came up and kissed me."

"He offered Jeffries a chance to get away, but Jeffries just laughed at him and said that he'd take him apart and then have me in front of him."

"While Chuck was facing me, Jeffries attacked him, but Chuck set him up for that so he wouldn't feel so guilty about what he was about to do to him. He took him apart like he did those thugs at the Woodcombs'. Then he told me to say what I wanted to him as he went to open the window and confirm that the kennels were right below us. Chuck said something to him about the dogs being hungry before he threw him out the window, but I'm not sure whether Jeffries registered what he said."

Ellie was looking aghast, but strangely satisfied about the story she'd just heard and she embraced Sarah before they went to rejoin the men.

After ordering Andy to stay with Ellie and Sarah, Chuck went to talk to John, and they agreed that John and Tom would remain with Isaiah, Ezra and two of the guards while the others went back to the hotel in the Barouche (they weren't leaving Bruja and Diablo behind).

When John and Tom returned to the hotel, they compared notes. Between them, they had gleaned a few possible investments, and had been told some vague stories about people trying to buy up claims or concerns, but no-one knew who, or whether they'd actually bought anything. As they weren't going to get anything of use in Denver, they decided that they needed to head off on a loop through Black Hawk, Idaho Springs, Georgetown, Montezuma, then Oro City, and the Alamosa River after that. Some of the sites were related to silver, rather than gold, but they were looking for places where the Culper Ring would be trying to grab things as they were starting up or taking off, and they could make money out of silver too.


	9. Mines, Honeymoon and Ring

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.  
**

The next morning, Jeffries' partner turned up at their hotel looking for him. Luckily for him he came straight up to their rooms, rather than asking at the desk for them, because it was a good bet that John would have killed him on the spot if he'd compromised their cover.

As it was, when Sarah looked up and saw him as John opened the door she cried out "Uncle John!", and he just grabbed the man by the shoulder and flung him into the room, closing the door behind him. Fitzroy looked outraged to be treated like this, but shut his mouth when he saw the looks on the faces glaring down at him.

Casey asked if anyone saw him coming here and he puffed out his chest as he climbed to his feet and said. "Of course not! I came up the back stairs."

Glaring at him Sarah asked "What are you doing here?"

He looked around before saying. "We need to talk, in private. This is sensitive."

"No! Talk!"

He shrugged, it was her funeral, and plunged into it. "Since you went off with my partner last night…."

Casey shot a look at Sarah but she shook her head tersely.

Fitzroy saw that but went on. "He's disappeared, do you know where he went after you finished?"

Sarah glanced at Chuck with a private smile.

"No, Jeffries disappeared after we talked."

Fitzroy really had no idea how much danger he was in here, because he snorted when she said. "Talked."

That prompted growls from Chuck and John, and Chuck asked. "Is there something funny about what my wife just said?"

This fool was as arrogant as Larkin and Jeffries, because he laughed at him. "Hey, if you want to believe that she was 'talkin', go ahead boy."

Chuck responded. "Well as a matter of fact I was there, so I know that's what she did. I also had some…. words with him before he left about what he wanted to make my wife do. But I have a question for you. Why were you trying to keep me from leaving the ballroom last night?"

Fitzroy tried to draw himself up, in spite of the fact that Chuck was a head taller than him. "I don't know what you're talking about! I was trying to engage you to pass on information about the activities here as per our orders!"

Chuck turned his head. "Elijah, do you have a moment?"

Elijah appeared in a flash "Yes Boss?"

"This man says that he didn't try to stop me leaving so I could go after my wife last night, what do you say?"

Elijah glanced at Fitzroy, then returned his attention to Chuck "I says he's a liar, he kept talking nonsense to keep you there and then grabbed your arm to stop you when you said that you needed to go."

Fitzroy snarled "Shut your mouth you filthy nigg.."

He was cut off by the slap from Tom that drove him to his knees "Don't talk to my trooper like that!"

"We'll try this again, why were you trying to stop me going after my wife?"

"I didn'..."

This time it was a punch from John, and Fitzroy cried out."Stop. Stop. I'll tell you!"

"Harry knew her from before and talked about what Gordon said she'd do. He told me to keep you there while he got her away and had some fun with her. He said I could have her when he was done with her..."

This time he was cut off by Sarah kicking him in the stones.

Chuck looked down at him as he rolled on the floor in pain. "You disgust me, almost as much as your partner did. Get out of here before you get what he did!"

Sarah gave a grim chuckle at that.

When Fitzroy looked up at the grim expressions on their faces, he choked out. "You. You. You killed him…. You killed a government agent!"

Sarah smiled coldly as she said. "We did no such thing! He was alive when he left us, wasn't he Honey?"

Chuck nodded. "Of course he was! In fact he was saying something just as he left to see some friends."

Sarah turned her gaze on Fitzroy "You see? He was alive when he left us, and I'd _strongly_ suggest that you never try to accuse us of anything like that again!"

She paused as if remembering something. "Mind you, I _did_ kill a government agent some months back in Washington, a lying snake by the name of Bruce Gordon."

Sarah got in his face then. "Now listen good! Those stories that Gordon told about me were nothing but lies, and if I hear of _anyone_ repeating them, I'll be coming after them, do you understand?"

He was just staring up at her in fear, so she growled. "I asked you a question!"

He nodded frantically and said. "Yes. Yes Ma'am!"

"Now get out of here and go look for that snake Jeffries. Leave by the way you came and don't come near us again! If you blow our cover here I'll let my partner over there kill you!"

He scrabbled to his feet and hobbled out the door, and John watched down the hall long enough to confirm that he'd left by the back stairs before he closed the door and turned to face them. Sarah was in Chuck's arms, John looked at them and asked what happened.

Sarah looked up and repeated what she'd told Ellie.

John had a grim smile on his face when she finished, and while Tom and Andy both looked horrified at first, when they thought on it, they agreed that Jeffries got what he deserved.

With that out of the way, they quickly fleshed out their plans for the trip around the gold and silver areas, sending the men out to get the supplies they needed.

* * *

Their plans were well under way when they received a telegraph from the Chief of the Secret Service, ordering them back to Washington immediately to answer questions about how the missing Secret Service Agent Harold Jeffries was killed.

After she calmed down a little, Sarah sent a lengthy coded telegram to Uncle Sam, explaining to him what had happened that night (leaving out the bit about Chuck throwing Jeffries into the dog pen, but making note of what Jeffries had said, especially his comments about being good friends with the Chief, and Fitzroy's efforts to stop Chuck from coming after her).

She also included everything said when Fitzroy came to their hotel rooms the next morning and the fact that they'd warned him _not_ to make any more false and unfounded accusations about them after he accused them of killing Jeffries, so there may be a certain Marshal on his trail soon.

On top of this, she pointed that this pair of Secret Service Agents had just been sitting around in Denver going to parties, when there was absolutely no sign of the Culper Ring in Denver. They'd have had to go out to where things were happening to have a chance of catching any Ring activity, which their party was planning to do tomorrow unless the Treasury Department stopped them.

Less than half an hour later, she received a response. "Proceed as planned, I will deal with Treasury and SS. G", so they were off.

They discussed what would be happening in Washington, and Sarah's explanation, as the authority on Uncle Sam, was accepted as being correct. "Uncle Sam will call the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chief of the Secret Service to his office, he'll show them the telegraph I sent him and ask what the hell they're doing, trying to order agents who report to _him_ off their case and back to Washington to answer trumped up charges with no evidence."

"Then he'll ask them why they're leaving lying incompetents who attempt to compromise other government agents in the field, and demand an accounting of just what their agents have accomplished, and he'll tell them to recall that idiot and drop these false charges against us. He'll also ask the Chief of the Secret Service about Jeffries' claims of friendship with him. They'll try to bluster and he'll remind them of who has been achieving everything in the last four or five months (waving her finger around their group), and he may offer to accept their resignations if their jobs are too much for them."

There were a few grim smiles around the table after that, but they had work to do. They made sure that they had the supplies they needed and packed everything, so in the morning they could saddle up all the mules, load the spare mules who would be the pack mules, take the trunks they were leaving at the hotel downstairs and head off.

When they checked out, they had their trunks and bags put in the hotel's locked storage room (the hotel's good name depended on their wealthy guests' things being untouched when they returned, so leaving them with the best hotel in Denver was the best guarantee that they'd be safe), mounted up and headed off.

Fortunately Adele was much of a size with Ellie, so Ellie loaned her some divided riding (or travelling, depending on who you were talking to) skirts to ride in (they'd have to get some made up for her when they could). She'd have to use one of their normal saddles, but Blackbird's sister Raven was of much the same sweet character as she was, so they put Adele on Raven when they left.

It was rather daunting for Adele's first serious ride to be on a slightly spirited 16 hand high molly, starting out on a ride that would be months long, but she faced up to it with courage and fortitude, and Raven's smooth gait helped build her confidence quickly.

* * *

They got to Black Hawk in reasonable time, and asked around until they found out which smelters, mines and other concerns were the best prospects. In Black Hawk it came down to an operation with a new type of smelter that was having trouble getting the backers to really take off, so they invested in it. They couldn't find any real evidence that looked like the Ring had been there, so they headed off to Idaho Springs.

In Idaho Springs, the places of interest were more smelters, and the mines that were producing the ore for those smelters, but they knew that they were on the right path now, because they were getting reports of others expressing interest in buying in, and accidents happening to people. They put money into the concerns that the Ring (presumably) was looking into to close them out, and also into other good prospects that they may go after (or just looked like good investments).

Chuck was also buying up claims that weren't viable with the current technology, but which he knew could pay, and pay well, once the modern world re-discovered the methods that he remembered from other ages. He pointed a few ones experimenting with these technologies in the right direction, to hurry that along a little. As well as that, he was buying up claims that he could see were were also likely to yield other metals or minerals that people weren't seeing yet because they were only focussed on gold or silver. Once they'd concluded their dealings there, it was off to Georgetown.

Georgetown was the first of the silver towns on their list, but once again, they heard the same stories that they'd been hearing in Idaho Springs about low offers and accidents, they made a number of deals there, and acquired as much information as they could about the ones who'd been trying to force their way in, before heading off to Montezuma, another silver town. They also left the same offers that they had at the last two towns, that if outsiders were trying to buy low and people were worried enough to think of selling, they could telegraph the Broken Circle people and if the deal was genuine, they'd pay a fair price.

In Montezuma, they went through what had become their normal practice, look at prospects, talk to people about outsiders, make offers, do deals, move on.

Next after Montezuma was Oro City, the gold had petered out in the area a while ago, but there had been some new developments and there were some interesting prospects if people wanted to take a risk. It didn't seem that the Ring had been there yet, but they did a few deals and left the same standing offers as they had at previous towns.

The benefits of these offers that they were leaving were twofold (well, threefold, actually), first, they were preventing the Ring from acquiring concerns that would make them money and let them expand. Second, when people contacted them they got good leads to chase the Ring (that had already paid off more than once). And the third, Broken Circle (and hence Memphis Trading) made the money that the Ring missed out on.

They also liked the idea of telling the Ring that they were coming after them with the Broken Circle name and brand, the story that they spread about was that it was founded by a cattle baron who'd discovered that he could make a lot more through speculating than ranching. Part of the legend they laid out was that John and Sarah were part of that cattle baron's family, and that they were from the South. They expected that would make the Ring ask around the South quite a bit, and had laid a few traps to find out when they did.

The next leg was a long one, all the way over to the Wrightman Fork area of the Alamosa River, talk was that there had been some big finds there lately, and that was just the sort of place that they'd expect to find the Ring to be trying to make a grab. They were hopeful that they would be able to take a significant bite out of the Ring's prospects there.

* * *

Chuck and Sarah didn't mind that trip though, as they were out in beautiful country with few cares until they hit the Alamosa River. They were together, they could talk freely about just about anything without worrying about people listening in much of the time, and they had Ellie with them (John, Tom, Andy and the rest too, but Ellie was the most important because she was a sister to the both of them).

At night, around the campfire, they did have some discussions about where the operations would be going after Chuck had completed his secret business and what they wanted to do, but they weren't under any great pressure to come up with anything for the now.

Given John's need to shoot something on a regular basis, they'd given him the job of hunter for the group, so he always had his eye out for game (as thirty nine people took a bit of feeding). At times Sarah would steal his thunder, and if she saw a deer or something and John wasn't anywhere to be seen (especially if it was across the valley, as she delighted in the long shot, just as he did), she'd grab her rifle and bring it down. This usually meant that Chuck had to go retrieve it, and sometimes dress it for her, though she wasn't the type of girl who minded getting her hands dirty.

It was only when they were getting close to the Alamosa River that Chuck and Sarah realised that this relaxed trip over the past week had been the closest that they'd gotten, or were likely to get, to a honeymoon. Ever since they married, they'd been working all hours of the day on both their own business, taking control of the Old One's fortunes, and the government's business, chasing down this bogus Culper Ring and trying to foil its plans.

On top of the workload that they were usually weighed down by, they (especially Sarah), had had to deal with base types such as Woody Woodcomb and Secret Service agents like Larkin, Jeffries and his partner Fitzroy, and the general skunks who always chase after a woman as beautiful as her. Their only reprieve from that had been when they went to bed at night, and often they were too tired to do more than sleep (though they both revelled in snuggling with the other, and would never discount that).

As a result, they hadn't had anything remotely like a honeymoon until this trip across from Oro City and that (unbeknownst to them) was what had made the trip so idyllic for the both of them.

* * *

By the time they reached the Wrightman Fork, though, they were back into Secret Service Agent mode to deal with the business at hand. They immediately began casting about for the best prospects, along with anyone behaving in the manner that the Ring was wont to, and this time they discovered a group currently operating in that manner.

It didn't take long to locate the camp for this group, and they settled down to observe them. John, Sarah and Chuck did their observing through the telescopic sights on their rifles, as they were the best telescopes that they had access to (well they regarded that as a valid argument, anyway, even if everyone could see John's finger positively twitching in his desire to rain lead down on these people).

As they observed the group, it quickly became apparent who were the shot callers in the group as there were only four or five who had any authority, the rest were no more than the hired guns used to create the "accidents" that the Ring used to try and force people to sell up. The identity of the authority figures was confirmed when they all triggered memories for Chuck showing him that they were part of the Culper Ring (proving that the memories that he had inherited were still valid).

Once that they had identified who was who, there was nothing stopping them from turning the tables on any of them that they did not need to question. That was why the Ring's hired guns' heads or chests suddenly started to explode when they were causing "accidents", or outright threatening or attacking people. Just about all the hired guns had disappeared by the time that they moved in to arrest, so to speak, the shot callers.

While the interrogations were necessary, and God knows these people had earned the treatment, it was still something that Chuck had trouble stomaching so he, Sarah and Ellie would normally go to see about making offers on any of the good prospects that seemed likely to sell while Casey was doing that. Casey didn't think any less of Chuck for this, in fact he mourned the loss of that part of himself which protested against things of this nature as he felt that he may never be able to regain that in himself. He had also seen that Chuck would step up and do those things that effected him deep inside when dire need presented itself, so Chuck's fortitude was not in question. That was why he chose to perform these activities when Chuck and the others were out of camp.

Usually, the only people who were there when he was doing this were the older Sergeants (Hank and the others were battle hardened warriors who had seen much of the horrors of war, and had more experience and leadership knowledge than most officers in the army). As distasteful as these interrogations were though, they were necessary to extract crucial information about the Culper Ring, so Casey extracted what they needed from them, and then gave them the deaths that they deserved.

All in all, they were in the Wrightman Fork area for three and a half weeks, but they had stopped the current Ring efforts to extort holdings from the people there, acquired any viable holdings that people were eager to sell (leaving the usual open offer for genuine opportunities if others were being pressured to sell), and Casey had extracted quite a bit of information about the Ring from his interrogation subjects, so it had to be regarded as a successful operation, as indeed could the entire three months that they'd spent on this loop by the time that they'd returned to Denver.

* * *

When they got back to Denver, they booked themselves back into the same hotel where their things were being stored, and sat down to write up all the reports of everything that happened in the Colorado operation. (Including the Jeffries incident, though they of course left out mention of throwing him to the dogs, or the newspaper reports they'd seen when they returned about the partial remains of a man being found in the kennels of a prominent Denver residence.)

Soon after they'd settled into the hotel though, they had a visit from the new Secret Service Agents in Denver, who had been ordered by the new Chief of the Secret Service, Roan Montgomery, to introduce themselves to the team. (Montgomery had landed the job in the aftermath of the Jeffries incident, because the President had ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to dismiss the previous Chief of the Secret Service after he admitted that what Jeffries said was true, and had told him to be _very_ careful about who he chose in to replace him.) Sarah had known both of these agents before, but under _very_ different circumstances.

The agents were posing as a married couple, but Sara had spun around when she heard the woman's voice saying "Hello Johnny, did you miss me?" as Casey opened the door.

Sarah had worked with Carina Miller a number of times since she became a Secret Service Agent, and Carina had quickly become one of the very few people who she had considered a friend before she met Chuck. She was beaming as she came to greet Carina, but that smile was wiped off her face by the voice she heard hissing at her. "Agent Miller, remember that you are supposed to be a married woman, it's not seemly to address another man in that manner!"

She didn't know Daniel Shaw from the Secret Service, in fact she hadn't even known that he was part of the Secret Service (though it shouldn't have been a surprise, considering what skunks most of the men she knew in the Secret Service had turned out to be).

Sarah had actually met him before she changed sides in the war. She'd been thirteen then (though she'd looked older of course) and her task at the time had been to uncover Union spies at a Confederate function in Carolina. Shaw had been at the function with a dark haired woman who was supposedly his wife, Eve, but he'd quickly latched onto Sarah and was quite aggressive about getting her to go upstairs with him.

When 'Eve' had objected to this, he'd pulled her what he thought was far enough away not to be overheard and viciously told her. "Just do your job, single out one of the old rebs and do what you have to to get him into bed so you can get the information that we're here for!" That was all Sarah needed and she'd quickly excused herself, inferring that she must use the facilities.

She told the guards that the Shaws were Union spies, but as the guards closed in on them, Shaw had thrown Eve at them to cause a distraction, moving to escape as the men tried to catch her. The guards who were clear of the confusion around her had started shooting at him, but he'd returned their fire, hitting a number of people including Eve before jumping through a window and escaping.

The woman had died in Sarah's arms soon after that, sobbing as she asked how he could do that to her, and Shaw had gotten away. Sarah hadn't seen or heard of Shaw in seven years, but that wasn't something that she'd ever be likely to forget.

Chuck saw the emotions crossing over Sarah's face and knew that this man was definitely an enemy of his wife's. He caught John's eye and flicked a glance Sarah's way, so that John saw the loathing in the look that Sarah was shooting in Shaw's (as he'd just introduced himself as) direction, and nodded to indicate that he understood.

John turned back to Carina and pointedly said. "Carina, why don't you and Sarah go off and catch up while the menfolk talk?"

Carina was about to snap at him for that when she caught the look on Sarah's face too, and quickly plastered the smile back on her face as she said. "That sounds good to me, come along Sarah." Linking arms with her, Carina hustled her off before Shaw could get close to her, or see her clearly.

Chuck shot a look Ellie's way and she nodded, having caught what was going on, so she asked. "Would you ladies mind if I join you? Apparently us womenfolk aren't welcome when they're talking serious business."

Carina smiled and laughed as she said. "Not at all, we don't want to listen to them anyway." Ellie smiled back and indicated Chuck and Sarah's room, shooting a pleading look Isaiah's way, with a nod to the drinks on the sidebar, to ask him to bring them something.

Chuck also shot a look Adele's way to let her know to get out of this while their guest was distracted, so she slipped quietly into her and Ellie's room.

Isaiah quickly put a tray of drinks together for them and took it to the room. He knocked and called out "Miss Ellie?", waiting for permission before opening the door to take the tray in.

Inside the room, Carina and Ellie were trying to settle Sarah down after seeing Shaw. Normally, Sarah would have been surprised by the drastic change in Carina's appearance, as she'd dyed her flaming red hair a dark brown (just as Sarah had done with her own blonde locks when she first met Shaw, actually) and was quite demurely dressed, but the shock of seeing Shaw and the memories that brought up had made Sarah incapable of generating surprise for anything else at that point.

When Isaiah came back out and closed the door, Shaw called out "Boy!", and everyone froze.

Chuck turned to Shaw. "Shaw, is it?"

"That's _M_ _iste_ _r_ Shaw, boy, you need to learn how to address your betters!"

"Shaw, we don't take kindly to anyone referring to our troopers like that, or anyone else for that matter, don't do it again!"

Shaw started to bluster "Just who do you think you are boy?", but John stepped in front of him.

"That would be Agent Barton, Colonel Barton or _Sir_ to you, Shaw! Apparently you're hard of hearing, so if you'd point out which of your ears it is that work, I'll repeat myself in that ear."

Shaw started stammering. "I'm. I'm sorry Colonel Barton, when I was told to introduce myself to you, I was not informed how young you were, so I had presumed that one of these gentlemen" (waving at Casey and Tom) "were Colonel Barton."

"And that makes it acceptable for you to try to throw your weight around, does it, Shaw?"

"No, no sir."

Chuck turned his back on him. "John, do you think you could rustle up some drinks for us, please? I think Isaiah has had to play servant enough for one day."

John nodded and headed over to the sidebar where the drinks were, patting Isaiah on the shoulder and nodding at the door to let him know that he was free to leave if he wanted to. Isaiah nodded his thanks and headed for the door, also shooting a look of thanks Chuck's way as he did so.

Chuck waved at Tom, Andy and Casey. "Major Paterson, Captain Dent, and Marshal Casey over there."

Tom and Andy nodded curtly at Shaw, Casey ignored him.

When Casey came back with the drinks, Chuck, Tom and Andy thanked him, but Shaw just nodded curtly as if it was his due.

Chuck noted that and added. "As for some reason you have trouble saying 'Marshal Casey' and 'Thank You', Shaw, you should address the Marshal as Colonel Casey, as that is his rank."

Chuck was still trying to push down his reaction to the memories that had come up in regard to Shaw, so he asked questions to give him time to get it under control, but that didn't work out quite the way he'd hoped. "Why are you and Agent Miller posing as husband and wife Shaw?"

Shaw gave an oily smirk. "Well people tend to be more backwards out here, so a man and a woman together have to be married to be accepted in respectable circles. Of course there's other benefits, _companionshipwise_ , but I don't need to tell you about that, do I Colonel? Aren't you and Agent Walker also posing as husband and wife?"

Casey saw Chuck's glass crack as his grip tightened, but he'd regained control of himself before he shattered it. Casey reached out as he stood. "I'm sorry Colonel Barton, I've just seen that I've given you a cracked glass, here, let me get you another one." Chuck nodded, but emptied the glass before he extended it to him with thanks.

Chuck drank quite a bit more than he was normally wont to do in the time that Shaw was there, as he was trying to deal with Shaw's posturing and lurid stories without showing a reaction.

Eventually, Carina and Ellie came out of Chuck and Sarah's room, laughing and acting drunk.

Ellie slurred at Chuck. "I'm sorry Colonel Barton, we appear to have given Agent Walker rather too much to drink, as she is quite indisposed."

Shaw moved in on Ellie with a predatory gleam in his eye, trying to charm her. "Hello, I am Daniel Shaw, the Secret Service Agent in charge for the region here, and you are?"

Ellie clapped her hand over her mouth and bolted to the convenience, leaving laughter in her wake.

Carina turned to Chuck with a laugh. "It would appear that the ladies in your party aren't strong drinkers Colonel Barton."

Chuck smiled at her, "Apparently not, but they have many other sterling qualities that we value them for."

They heard Shaw's snide chuckle behind them, and Carina smiled to herself as she saw the look of white hot anger that flashed across Chuck's face at Shaw's inference, thinking. 'Yep, Sarah has herself a good one here.'

Just to drive the point home, Carina responded to Chuck. "Yes, we've heard of the amazing things that your people have accomplished, those stories tend to make us ordinary agents feel a tad inadequate."

Shaw jumped in with a pathetic attempt to curry favour with Chuck. "Agent Miller, I hope you are not to trying to attribute Colonel Barton's achievements to the minor members of his group?"

At that Chuck turned on him. "Obviously Agent Miller has read the reports more closely than you have Shaw, because she's only giving credit where credit's due! Agents Walker and Helsing have been instrumental in most of our achievements, just as much as Marshal Casey and myself, as has Major Paterson's team."

Shaw tried to recover "I didn't mean any disrespect to the women of your team Captain Barton, it was merely a misunderstanding from what I had read."

"Perhaps you should do proper study before you open your mouth then, I will not have _any_ member of our team belittled on the basis of incorrect hearsay or bigotry."

He turned to Carina and kissed her hand. "Agent Miller, you are too modest. I've heard about some of your own achievements and I do hope to have a chance to meet with you again to discuss them."

Carina blushed as she curtsied to Chuck, then went up on tip toe to kiss John on the cheek, saying "Until next time, Johnny." before turning to Shaw. "Come along Shaw, Colonel Barton's team obviously have work to do that we're keeping them from."

Shaw bristled at that, but nodded to each in turn "Colonel Barton", "Marshal Casey", "Major Paterson", ignoring Andy as a lowly Captain.

He grabbed Carina's arm roughly, but she jerked it out of his grasp with a cry of pain, and any response he may have made was stopped by Casey's very bear like growl as he stepped towards them.

Shaw stumbled back from rage on Casey's face, which effectively protected Carina from any later reprisals from him, because Shaw just knew that the man would somehow find out and come after him if he did anything to her.

After they'd left, Sarah and Ellie rejoined the group, and Chuck noted that Sarah had, in fact, been drinking a fair deal, possibly even more than he had. She told the men the story that Carina and Ellie had heard in the room, about how she'd met Daniel Shaw and what had happened to the woman who was playing the role of his wife.

When she finished, Chuck said quietly "She wasn't playing the part of his wife Sarah, she _was_ his wife."

When their reactions to that news had calmed down, he told them what the memories had shown him, and why he'd been having so much trouble controlling his own reaction to Shaw.

"Her name was Evelyn, Shaw seduced her and got her to elope with him as soon as she was of age. Her father disowned her and cut her off without a cent when he found out to prevent Shaw from using her to get his hands on the family's money. When he couldn't get her family's money, Shaw made her seduce older men in New York to extort money from them until the New York Police started to close in on them. That was why he changed their name to Shaw, and they both joined the Pinkertons to get away from New York just as the war started. For the next two and a half years, he made Evelyn sleep with anyone he thought would help get him ahead, Pinkerton to get them assigned to spy on the Confederacy, and any Confederate officer that he thought they could get information from. But because he couldn't get them into any functions where important people were, the information she paid for with her body was nearly always useless. That was what they were doing the night that you met them at that function Sarah."

"Shaw got away that night, and returned to the Union with a wild tale about Evelyn being captured, and how he'd tried to rescue her, only to see her be shot down in cold blood by the Rebs. Also how he only barely escaped with his own life after being shot himself."

He looked at Sarah. "So apparently one of the guards managed to hit him."

"Pinkerton didn't believe his story but the paper pushers in Washington obviously swallowed it, because Shaw was taken back there and hailed as a hero. He stayed in Washington until the end of the war and then became one of the first Secret Service Agents after the war. It was his position as a Secret Service Agent that got him recruited by the Culper Ring with the promise of money, power and women in sixty seven, and he's been selling out the Secret Service and the Nation ever since then."

"In sixty eight, Evelyn's father found him in New York and confronted him about what happened to his daughter. Shaw taunted him with the whole story, telling him every sordid detail of what Evelyn's life with him had been like before he killed him. His Culper Ring contact was there at the time and heard the whole thing so I've got it all in here." He tapped the side of his head.

Ellie said that they had to go and get the skunk straight away, but Sarah shook her head resignedly.

"No Ellie, I'm afraid that we can't do that without proof, especially so soon after being accused of murdering Jeffries as we were."

Then she looked up with a determined look on her face. "But we _can_ get Uncle Sam to order the Chief of the Secret Service to recall Carina to Washington immediately, using the justification that we're sending the full report back with Andy when he brings in the other reports and that she'll be needed to testify."

The others nodded at that and she jumped up to go code and send the telegraph to Uncle Sam straight away.

* * *

Andy would be carrying the reports back to Washington, taking two of the senior Sergeants and six Troopers with him for a security detail. The rest of the team were going along with Chuck, Sarah, Ellie and John, so they gave Andy the details of where they would be headed and what signals they'd leave to tell him where they were going next from each stop, so he'd be able to catch up with them when he returned.

When they'd finished all of the reports and sent Andy and his detail off on the train to Washington (making sure that the livery stable understood what would happen to them if anyone touched any of their mules, or their tack and equipment that was stored there), before the rest of the party put their trunks and bags back into the Hotel's locked storage and headed out to the Four Corners area to look for the descendants of the Ancient Pueblo people.

They were expecting this trip to take at least two to two and a half months, because it would take them at least two weeks each way to get there and back, and they were expecting to be down there for at least a month.

The ride out to Four Corners was rather sombre, as Chuck was worrying about whether he would find anyone who could help him ensure that any trace of the Daemon was purged from him, and what would happen if he did. Sarah on the other hand was worried about whether Uncle Sam had gotten Carina away from Shaw, and how to make sure that Shaw paid for what he had done. Ellie was also short with people because she was missing Andy, even though she couldn't bring herself to admit that. On top of that, heading down into the desert as they were, the country was harsher than where they'd been when they were chasing the Culper Ring, so all in all it was a grim trip.

* * *

Once they reached Four Corners, they left signs for Andy to tell him where they were going and headed off to the first of the Pueblo communities. The initial reaction whenever Chuck addressed the people in the old language was fear and distrust, but Chuck usually managed to talk them around to trusting him, and then he'd broach the issue of driving out bad spirits.

Chuck was disappointed in every village, because when he managed to locate the person that he needed to talk to and told them what he was looking for, the response was always the same, that the last person who'd known anything about that had been a few generations ago. So all Chuck could do was thank them and move on to the next village. They spent some time helping the villagers through fixing things and Ellie's services as a doctor, but their own hope was fading.

They'd been moving about the Four Corners area for almost a month when Andy and his detail caught up with them, but they had brought someone else with them, because Uncle Sam had decided to add Carina to their team after reading Sarah and Chuck's report on Shaw, and the separate letter that Sarah had sent him about Carina. Carina brought a letter from him which detailed the decisions he'd made about Carina and the team, and what actions had been taken in regard to Shaw.

When Carina turned up with Andy and his detail, it was a surprise, but seeing her safe lifted a weight from Sarah, as did reading that Shaw was being dealt with.

When they read the letter and discussed it, no-one had an issue with adding Carina to the team, though Sarah did take her aside to tell her that Andy was off limits because he and Ellie were feeling their way towards a relationship. Carina just laughed at that, and told her that she'd already gotten that from his lack of interest when she tried to be nice to him.

Carina wondered what she'd gotten herself into when Chuck and Sarah took her aside and told her Chuck's secret, but she trusted Sarah completely, so hard as it was to believe she accepted what she was told as the truth.

They spent another few weeks moving between the Pueblo villages in the area so that Chuck could talk to the elders after that, but he kept getting the same responses. The only hope Chuck ever got was in those villages where he was told stories about the ones who still had the old knowledge, and he'd gotten as much information as he could from them about where these people were supposed to be.

In the last village that they visited though, the old woman he was talking to took his arm as he went to leave and said.

" _You do no_ _t_ _need to worry_ _about_ _this, I can see nothing of what you speak inside of you._ "

Chuck took her to the doorway of her hut and pointed to Sarah and Ellie. _"Do you see these?"_ The old woman nodded. _"This is my wife, and my sister, to make them safe I_ _must_ _worry_ _about_ _this, I can let no harm come to them."_

The old woman had nodded, agreeing that a man must protect his family, but she had him lead her out to where Sarah and Ellie were and embraced them, pointing to Chuck and saying "Your man good, he no worry", as that was most of the English that she had, and they couldn't speak the language of the people as he could.

Soon after that, they headed back for Denver, but the trip back was no better than the trip out, because Chuck was despondent about his lack of success and none of them were looking forward to going back into the campaign against the Culper Ring.

Back in Denver, when they booked back into the same hotel again there were a few raised eyebrows, but no comments, about the fact that their party had grown by one, but John just told them that Carina was his niece, and that they'd been waiting for her to join them.

Carina's hair was now back to its natural flaming red colour, and she was behaving more like her normal assertive self, so it was unlikely that anyone would recognise her as the erstwhile Mrs Anderson. Indeed, she attended some functions on Tom's arm while they were there and there was nary a reaction (other than men's normal reactions to her).

* * *

They stayed another week in Denver while Chuck struggled with the decision about where they should go to from there, as their experiences in the Four Corners area had driven home the fact that it could well take years to find someone who remembered what he was looking for, if they ever did.

Part of his problem was that, if they were going to go after the ones he had been told about, this was as close a place as any to head out from, but it was several times further than the Four Corners trip had been, and he couldn't justify dragging everyone away on another trip that would involve at least six months of hardship and had every chance of being just as much as a waste of time as Four Corners had been.

Chuck quickly discounted the notion that he should just take out on his own, because he knew that Sarah and Ellie would come after him as soon as they found him gone, and the rest of them would almost certainly come with them.

The old woman's confidence that there was nothing of the Old One left inside of him had bolstered him a little though as he couldn't find any sign of it either. This brought the question down to whether or not he could put aside his worries about that and concentrate on the very real issues that the President and his family were depending on him to overcome.

Sarah's expression when she came in with the morning telegrams told Chuck that they'd received a response to at least part the telegram that he'd sent the night before to their law firm (the telegraph equipment in the Tolbert, Ives and Jager offices automatically recorded incoming messages, so that they could contact them whenever they needed to).

He was pretty sure he knew what her reaction was going to be in regard to the fact that he'd slipped out of their bed and broke into the telegraph office to send the telegram in the early hours of the morning while she slept, but he hoped that she would hold that in until they were alone.

She threw the messages down on the table, spitting out "Apparently they will have the train with the cars we want here in three days, so we can leave then!" before she turned and stormed off. Chuck jumped up and went after her, and the others heard the shouting through the door of their room for the next half hour or so, then the door opened and they came out.

Ellie went up to them and asked Sarah if she was all right and whether they'd sorted it out, but when Sarah nodded and said "Yes Ellie, we've come to an agreement now", she rounded on Chuck and punched him hard. "What were you doing, going out by yourself at two in the morning to send telegrams that could have just as easily been sent in the morning without breaking into the telegraph office?"

She thrust the telegrams into his face and stormed off too. Chuck grabbed at them before they fell, and when he read them, he saw the question about how they'd managed to send the telegram at 2:00 AM? The message did, however, state that the Hotel and horse cars requested would be on the train arriving in three days. Chuck looked at the others, but Casey and Tom just shook their heads and Carina glared at him before going to talk to Sarah.

Chuck looked at Hank and asked "Hank, do you have time to escort me to the telegraph office?" but Sarah called out. "Don't bother Hank, I'll do it!" before coming over to speak quietly in his ear.

"You're not leaving my sight until we get on that train!"

He nodded, turning to kiss her cheek and whispering in her ear. "I love you, and may I say again, I'm sorry?"

She returned the kiss and nodded, whispering. "I love you too."

They quickly coded the telegraph to Uncle Sam to let him know that they'd be returning to Washington to map out the coming operations, leaving Denver in three days, and that to maintain their cover, they'd be staying at the Willard and putting the mules into a livery stable near there (they knew that there'd be an argument over that, but they did not know whether they'd be followed back to Washington, so it was necessary).

They strolled down to the telegraph office, sent the telegraph to Uncle Sam (as well as the one to their law firm to book them into the Willard and the stables) and returned, and along the way Chuck tried (again) to explain to her why he'd felt compelled to send the message immediately when he woke with the decision fresh in his mind.

As they neared the hotel, Sarah looked up at him and laughed, Chuck looked at her with a raised eyebrow and waited, but she shook her head.

"Nellie is going to adore your new look, but Aunt Julia is going to hate it for the same reason."

"And what is that, may I ask?"

"Because it makes you look wild and dangerous."

In the six months since they'd first arrived in Denver, Chuck had neither shaved, nor cut his hair, so he wore a full beard (albeit, neatly trimmed), and his curly hair hung almost to his shoulders (long enough that he'd taken to tying it back, just as Sarah, Ellie and Carina did, most of the time to keep it out of the way). As well as that, after spending nearly six months on the road on horseback and working hard, he was lean and tanned, and he was wearing a pair of sixguns in open holsters, so Sarah's description was quite accurate.


	10. Decisions, Mines and Cathouses

****Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.****

They spent the next two days packing, and sorting out how they were to fit everyone on the train. It was decided that Ellie would be sharing with Chuck and Sarah, and Carina would share with Adele. Carina opened her mouth to make one of her typically saucy comments, but Sarah shook her head, just enough for her to pick up on it.

The thing was, in the time since Carina had joined them, she and Tom had been growing quite close, and there was an obvious attraction between the two of them, but Carina had been living a wild and wanton life for so long now in the Secret Service that she could scarcely remember how to behave. She nodded with a thankful look to Sarah, and kissed her on the cheek before hurrying out with tears in her eyes.

On the third day, they settled up at the hotel and the stable and had the luggage and the mules taken to the railroad station when their train arrived. Sarah and Ellie wouldn't board their car until their mules had been loaded, and Carina stood with them on that (mainly because it irritated the men), but even so, everything was loaded and secured in time for the train's departure.

Once they were under way, the ladies changed into the more practical clothes that they preferred (comfortable blouses and trousers), and they all settled down for the trip to Washington.

They spent much of the trip when they weren't looking after the mules playing cards, though many of them still spent a fair bit of time sitting up on the roofs of the horse cars, admiring the scenery.

They stopped in Kansas City to pick up the side saddles for Adele and Carina's that Mr Landis had sent down (they had wired Adele's measurements to him the first time they returned to Denver, and Carina's when they returned from Four Corners). Carina's expression when she saw them said that she knew something about side saddles and wasn't happy about this, but when Sarah tried to talk to her about what the issue was she just waved it away as something from her past. Adele was just intrigued, as she'd only ever seen the grand ladies (like Miss Sarah and Miss Ellie) riding side saddle.

When they pulled into Washington, there were steam carriages waiting to carry the team, and Tom and Andy, straight to the President's House. They quickly arranged for the Troopers to take the mules to the livery stable and their luggage to the hotel (Adele going along with them, to await their arrival at the hotel), handing the saddle scabbards that held their rifles, carbines and large blades over to take with them.

Entering the President's house, they attracted a fair degree of attention as they exuded a certain dangerous air after six months in the West, not to mention the sixguns that the four men were showing (never mind that they had even more weapons that weren't showing, and the ladies were carrying just as many).

* * *

As was usual, when they arrived in the President's antechamber, they were waved straight in ahead of those waiting, and Chuck scanned the people in the room on the way through, discovering two more with Culper Ring associations. The worrying thing about that was that one of them was one of the President's aides. He stayed near the peep hole and waved Uncle Sam over to point them out to him.

Uncle Sam looked concerned when he pointed out the aide, and as soon as the peep hole was sealed he asked "Are you sure, Charles?" Chuck nodded and gave him a brief summary of the man's dealings with the Ring, which made Uncle Sam sigh in dismay. When he'd composed himself, Uncle Sam went to the door and called one of his proven and trusted aides over, telling him to get the marshals and take the two men into custody.

With the door closed again, Chuck tried to apologise, but Uncle Sam patted him on the shoulder, saying. "No, it's better to know, son, I need you to tell me these things."

He stopped to take in Chuck's appearance then and smiled. "I approve of the new look, son, but Julia won't."

Chuck smiled back. "I know Uncle Sam, Sarah's already warned me about that."

Uncle Sam waved them to seats, indicating the cigars and liquor for anyone who was so inclined before turning to Chuck, "So tell me Chuck, where is your team off to next?"

Chuck looked down for a moment and Sarah reached out to squeeze his hand. He lifted her hand to his lips and then looked back at Uncle Sam.

"After spending nearly three months trying to find my answer in Colorado, and realising that the other sites that I wanted to visit are so much further away that it would take several times as long to reach them, I have had to concede that it could take years to find the answer, if I ever do. So, I have come to the decision that we should concentrate on dealing with this Culper Ring, and anything else that comes up here and now, and if any of those operations take us close enough to the places where I can seek my answers, then I will look into them then."

Uncle Sam looked at him for about a minute, and then said. "Thank you son, I know what a sacrifice it must be for you to give up your search. Are you sure you don't want more time to think on it?"

Chuck shook his head. Uncle Sam nodded at that. "So how do you want to proceed?"

"I think the best approach would be for us to go through all the information that's been collected on the Culper Ring's current plans and determine which is the most urgent, then the next most urgent, and so on, then we'll go after them in descending order."

Uncle Sam nodded again, and stood. "If you're going to be looking at all the records we've put together, you'd best do that in the records room then."

Chuck nodded and stood himself, reaching out to hand Sarah up. Once everyone was on their feet, they followed Uncle Sam from the office. Crossing the antechamber, though, the men who'd been waiting to see him rushed to try and speak with the President, only to pull up when the four rather formidable men and three lovely but imposing women, each of them brandishing a pair of large revolvers, suddenly formed a daunting barrier between them and the President.

The largest of the men growled. "One more step towards the President and we start shooting."

At that, the men in the front row started frantically pushing back against the ones behind them, and when this didn't work turned around to push their way through, desperate to get out of the room.

In little more than a minute, the seven people with the President and his three aides were the only ones left in the room.

Silenced reigned until the President chuckled. "Well that was effective! Perhaps I should keep you here to keep them away from me." Sarah and Carina snickered at that, and they all holstered their pistols.

After that, no-one disturbed them, and they reached the records room and entered without any futher interruptions. Uncle Sam told the officer in charge to give them access to all the files on Culper Ring, and to point them to where the most recent information was. With that he left them to it and went back to his office.

One thing that Uncle Sam did leave them with was that they _had_ to come to dinner that night, or he'd be forced to sent enough men to drag them back, as Julia and Nellie would accept nothing less.

They brought in others from Tom's team, and over the next few days, they worked in the records room, going through the files state by state and building lists of probable Ring acquisitions. When it came to information about where the Ring would be hitting next though, Chuck found that the memories that he had obtained via the Old One were becoming of less use now, because the newest of those memories were nearly a year old.

This didn't reduce the memories' effectiveness in the fight against the Ring, as they provided the structure, connections and history of who were involved with the Culper Ring and their core plans, and none of that was likely to change in a hurry.

Even if the memories were of less help in predicting where to look for the Ring's expansion attempts though, natural intelligence and logic still worked just fine, and they had an abundance of that in their team. This was why the others were less worried than Chuck about the fact that the memories weren't giving as many answers, as they could see (almost certainly better than he did) that he was still coming up with more ideas that were moving them forward than anyone else was, because with his science and engineering background he knew where to look. The rest of them were all adding to what Chuck was putting together. Even Carina was proving valuable, because after three months working the social circuit in Denver, she knew many of the names and associations that they should be looking for out there, and she was no slouch in regard to smarts either.

While they were doing this, Carina disappeared several times to have meetings with Uncle Sam without telling the others what she was doing. This had been perplexing and a little worrying until Uncle Sam made an announcement when they went back to him to advise what direction they would follow in their operations.

After three days of solid work, they had put together a ream of papers and a plan to move forward, and they went back to Uncle Sam. They all spent a few hours going over what they'd put together, and it was agreed that they'd start in Nevada, and then head on to California after that. With the decision made, they sent a telegram to their law office to make the usual arrangements for two Pullman Hotel cars and five horse cars.

* * *

Once that was done, Uncle Sam made the announcement about Carina. What she had been seeing him about was getting things pushed through to formally change her name back to her real name, Harriet Quinlan (Hattie to her friends).

While dealing with this group, and one person in particular, she'd realised that she didn't want to continue to be known as who she had been since she'd joined the Secret Service any more, she wanted to be free to show herself as she truly was.

It turned out that Hattie Quinlan hadn't been the submissive, dutiful daughter that her family, or at least her father, had expected her to be. That was why, when she'd been informed by him in her late teens that she was to marry the son of one his business associates to merge their empires, she'd rebelled and run away to the only safe haven that she knew, her Aunt Carina in Boston, the black sheep of her mother's family.

Hattie's Aunt Carina had inherited a fortune from a maiden aunt (who'd seen herself when she was younger in Carina), which was sufficiently large to ensure that she wouldn't be constrained by others' expectations. From that point on she'd taken great delight in flaunting this in the face of her family and anyone else who'd expected her to conform to the mores of society.

Young Hattie had at first enjoyed the freedom from the shackles that her family (or more to the point, her father) had placed on her, but she soon found that she wanted more than the permissive lifestyle of her Aunt's house, so she had prevailed on her Aunt Carina to help her get into law school.

Harvard Law School would not accept female students of course so she'd had to become a boy, Harold Quinn, in order to enrol, just as Sarah had had to become Samuel Walton to get into Columbia Law School. Hattie (or rather Harry) had done well in law school, graduating Cum Laude, but after getting her qualifications and being admitted to the bar, she'd found that that life didn't satisfy her the way that she'd hoped it would.

Soon after that she'd gotten into a discussion with one of her Aunt's lovers, Roan Montgomery, and that discussion had ultimately resulted in her joining the Treasury's Secret Service Division as Carina Miller (her Aunt's name).

Carina Miller had achieved considerable notoriety and success in the Secret Service, and she'd found it quite the release to behave more like Aunt Carina than Hattie Quinlan, but now she wanted more than that, she wanted to be herself. That was why she'd requested Uncle Sam's help to get her name changed back to Harriet Quinlan (Roan would have helped but he didn't have the influence to drive it through himself), and before they left Washington, it was done.

None of them were naive enough to believe that the change from Carina Miller to Hattie Quinlan would be an easy or quick matter, because they were all used to Carina, especially Sarah and John who had known her for years, but they understood why she wanted this change, and did their best to comply with her wishes.

After the announcement, Hattie had taken Sarah aside to explain to her what the issue about the side saddle had been. Like Sarah, she'd been expected to acquire that skills to demonstrate that she was an accomplished young lady. Hattie hadn't had the type of teachers that Sarah had though, as to her father she was nothing more than a pawn to be used in his plans to build his business empire. Therefore, he refused to pay for anything better than a second rate hack. This man had also turned out to be a letch who took every opportunity to touch her, on the bottom, chest, anywhere he believed he could get away with it. That was why she'd hardly learned anything about riding side saddle, because her efforts had mostly been focussed on trying to stay away from him.

Sarah held her as she cried after that, then whispered in her ear.

"Well you know that I'd never try and touch your bottom or chest, because mine are so much better!"

That was enough to turn Hattie from breaking down crying, to collapsing with laughter. When she could speak again, she hugged Sarah and kissed her on the cheek, whispering "Thank you Sarah!"

Uncle Sam made sure that the team were coming to dinner as often as possible before they left, as in all probability they'd be away longer this time than they had been in Colorado, so he was trying to give Julia and Nellie all the time he could with Sarah and the others.

* * *

Their primary area for operations in Nevada was to be around Virginia City, so they'd sent a few telegrams to secure lodgings at the International Hotel for them and the livery stable for their mules (as they were keeping to the cover of well heeled speculators buying up what they could in the mining districts). The International Hotel had been surprised by the size of the booking they were making, but assured them that they would be accommodated.

They were also doing a side trip to Eureka, but that would be a much shorter trip than the one to Virginia City. They'd tried to organise lodgings ahead of time there as well, but with no telegraph to Eureka, they had no way of knowing whether their request had arrived, let alone if it could be filled.

The dress standards for the mining districts had relieved Sarah's ire a little though, as she, Ellie, Hattie, and Adele could maintain the expected standards with their riding skirts, this was a great relief to Chuck too as he didn't like to see his wife aggravated, and especially not with him.

Truth be told, Sarah, Ellie and Hattie actually didn't mind wearing the riding skirts, as they allowed them to carry their .46 revolvers without them showing most of the time, which was fortuitous. (They'd sent Adele and Hattie's measurements to their dodgy seamstress in New York, along with the money and colour requirements, from Denver to have her make up all the requisite outfits for the two women, and these had arrived while they were in Washington.)

The reduced standards of the mining districts also simplified their horseback travel arrangements, given that the group's spare mounts, as pack mules, could easily carry any requirements beyond what each rider could carry in saddlebags on their mount for the trip to Eureka. These extra requirements were mainly food, water, feed for the mules etc, plus the cash box (to buy into claims or concerns), additional .46 ammunition, and clothes and other requirements for the main party (the team plus Tom and Andy).

When they boarded the Pullman car, they were greeted by Otis, the porter who they tried to get when they were travelling, who was very happy to see them again so soon. He was rather confused by Carina's change of name at first, but he'd just given her a big smile and said "That's a right pretty name Miss Hattie", which earned him a smile such as few had seen from her. Once aboard, they quickly settled into the same bunk arrangements and routines as they'd had before on the train.

On this trip, there was of course a greater degree of discussion on how they would be operating when they arrived than they'd had on the trip to Washington. It was still far less than they'd had their first trip to Colorado though, as they had by now established their operating methods, so these discussions were more clarifying details than significant planning sessions.

This meant that they once again spent a good deal of time playing cards, though perching on the roofs of the horse cars to watch the scenery go by was still a popular pastime, as well, until it got too cold and they had to come back in anyway.

Sarah, Ellie, Hattie and Adele were wearing their riding skirts most of the time on the train, because Hattie and Adele were trying to get used to them, or more to the point, get accustomed to how they must to stand, sit and walk in order to keep the skirts draped so that their revolvers would remain hidden. Sarah and Ellie were demonstrating to the other women how to achieve this. The leather harnesses that had been sewn into the skirts to support the holsters for the .46 revolvers did the job quite well, but the weight of the pistols still tended to pull the skirts in such a way that the pistols would be exposed if they weren't careful. This was why practice was needed for them to get used to what they must do to prevent that.

One thing they were thankful for, after they'd passed through Colorado, was that they weren't stopping for more than fuel and water for the train until they had passed into Nevada. The attitudes towards outsiders in general in the region that they were going through were still hostile enough, but their attitudes towards women were something that Chuck most definitely didn't want to subject Sarah, Ellie, Hattie or Adele to, so until they were in Nevada, the ladies generally only left the train on isolated stops.

For the most part, the men unloaded their mules and exercised them whenever the train stopped for long enough, and the ladies made up for that by looking after the mules more when they were in the horse cars. Needless to say, they all breathed a sigh of relief when they'd passed into Nevada.

There was little in Nevada that was likely to attract the Culper Ring's attention at that time, other than the recent strikes in the Eureka area, and the mines and strikes around Virginia City, which was why their party had passed straight through Nevada until they reached Palisades.

* * *

In Palisades, they had their Pullman and horse cars moved off to the railroad siding and uncoupled from the train. They made quick work of unloading their 'luggage' from the baggage car and moving it all into the Pullman cars before the train left.

They left eight Troopers to guard the Pullman and horse cars and the extra mules for the week to a week and a half that they'd be away on the trip to Eureka, and loaded saddle panniers onto their designated pack mules to carry what they'd need for the trip. Bags of feed for the mules etc were strapped across the top of the panniers. Once everything was packed, they said their goodbyes to the troopers and the Pullman car staff and headed off for Eureka.

It actually only took them about a day to reach Eureka, which was a good time by any standards for over eighty miles, especially considering that all their mules arrived in good condition. When they arrived, it was a pleasant surprise to find that their message had, indeed, been received, and that there was no problem in organising lodgings for their party, or stables for their mules.

Given that their main operation was to be in Virginia City, and they did not wish to delay that, they immediately split up to engage the locals in discussions so that they could gather information, Chuck with Sarah, Ellie with Andy and John, and Hattie with Tom,and of course, all of them had Troopers following them and guarding them, while Adele stayed back at the hotel with the other Troopers.

After their time in Colorado, Ellie was becoming almost as accomplished as Sarah and Hattie at distracting the men they were talking to, to get them to let slip more information than they realised.

Of course, the tone of the discussions would quickly very change if the men they were talking to displayed any inappropriate attention to the ladies, or made any unwelcome comments or overtures to them. If that happened, those men would invariably run with their tails between their legs very quickly when they saw what awaited them.

It didn't take them more than two days to identify the best prospects in the area (the pick of them being, not surprisingly, around the strikes at Ruby Hill), and determine that there didn't appear to be any activity that would indicate that the Culper Ring had started to move into the area as yet.

Once they'd determined what the best prospects were, they proceeded as they had in Colorado, they assessed the options on each and make a fair offer, if the offer was accepted, they'd do the deal and move on to the next concern on their list, this was done in less than two days.

As they also had in Colorado, they left standing offers that, if concerns were being pressured and/or threatened to sell cheap, they could contact the Broken Circle, and if the deal was genuine, they would offer a fair price.

With their dealings done, they settled up with the hotels and stables and headed back to Palisades, arriving back at the cars less than a week after they'd headed out.

* * *

Their first task upon arrival back at Palisades was to telegraph the Central Pacific Railroad to make arrangements for their cars to be picked up by the first available train to take them on to Reno. After that they sent other telegrams to the Intercontinental in Virginia City and the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, to confirm when they would be arriving.

Their cars were picked up that afternoon, so they reached Reno late the next morning. When they arrived in Reno, they unloaded their 'luggage' from the baggage car and their belongings from the Pullman car while the five horse cars were being uncoupled from the train. Then they said goodbye to Otis for the now and watched as the train departed, to continue on its way towards San Francisco.

They hired a wagon for half an hour (well, actually it was for an hour as that was the shortest hire they could negotiate) so that some of the Troopers could take their 'luggage' over to the Riverside Hotel, and they unloaded all the mules from the cars to give them time to recover from being penned up in the horse cars while they waited for the cars to be coupled to the Virginia and Truckee train.

This was a special run down to the Steamboat Springs depot (the end of the line for this service at the moment) that they'd chartered V&T to make for them, so as to save them time and effort in getting to Virginia City.

They also saddled the mules while they waited. Given that the trip down the rail to the Steamboat Springs depot would take less than an hour, it wouldn't be any great hardship the mules to be saddled up for that much longer, but it would let the group get away more quickly once they reached the end of the line.

When the Troopers returned from Riverside with the wagon, the horse cars had been coupled up to the V&T train, so they loaded the mules and climbed aboard the single passenger car, and they were on their way.

At the Steamboat Springs depot, they merely had to tighten the cinches on the mules' saddles, strap on saddlebags and rifle and carbine scabbards or saddle panniers on the spare mules, then mount and head on into Virginia City. They reached Virginia city not much more than an hour after they'd left Steamboat Springs, and proceeded straight to the International Hotel.

Seeing such a large, heavily armed group striding into the entry hall of the Hotel had the people there quite worried, until Chuck went up to the desk with Sarah and said "I believe that you have a booking for us, the Barton Party?"

Upon hearing that, the manager stopped cowering out the back and came forward to greet him. Chuck cut off the man's rambling and asked whether their requirements for most, if not all, of their rooms to be together, with no other guests in their area had been complied with?

The manager nodded energetically. "Yes. Yes of course Mr Barton, may I show you the rooms so that you can confirm that you're happy with them?"

Chuck nodded, and looked at Tom to get some Troopers to come with them, Tom signalled four Troopers and they fell in behind the party as they headed up the stairs.

The rooms were actually quite good, and they took up most of the top floor, so Chuck booked out the rest of the rooms on the floor so that they had the floor to themselves, this also meant that some of them could have rooms to themselves. They'd have two Troopers on guard in the hallway whenever they were there, and another two guarding their mules at the livery stable. When the guards were questioned about this, they just answered.

"The boss wants us on guard, and what the boss wants, he gets."

Once they'd settled into their rooms, they headed out to began strolling about Virginia City, gathering information. They kept to the same pairings as they had used in Eureka, all of them with a handful of Troopers following them and guarding them. Their reputation had proceeded them though, and they were constantly being accosted by men trying to offer them claims and business opportunities.

After Colorado and Eureka, they had become adept at sifting the genuine opportunities and information from those just trying to fleece the new arrivals, and they quickly got rid of the ones who didn't have anything genuine to offer them. Once again, the ladies helped disarm the men they were talking to, which meant that they generally revealed more than they had planned to.

Over the space of the next week or so, they managed to put together quite a bit of information about the better prospects in the district (including Carson City, which they visited a few times), and had also collected a number of reports of activity which had all the signs of the Culper Ring.

* * *

The most interesting encounter, though, was when Casey was approached by a pretty and well dressed young prostitute, who told him. "Madam Gertie sent me sir, because she is desirous to speak with you."

Ellie's eyes danced with mirth as she said "If you wish to go and do your business, Uncle John, that is all right, I understand that men have their needs."

Andy was struggling to keep a straight face, as he was just as amused by this as Ellie was, but there was no way that he was about to say a word about it. Ellie may be able to get away with it, but he was quite sure that Marshal Casey would break him in two if he were to ever suggest anything of that nature.

The prostitute's response to Ellie's comment, though, was interesting. "Oh no Miss, when Madam Gertie says that she wishes to speak with the gentleman, that will be what she means. She ain't one of the working girls no more!"

Ellie and Casey looked at each other when she said that, Ellie raised her eyebrow and Casey nodded thoughtfully. "I should take you back to the Hotel..."

"Oh no, that isn't necessary Uncle John, you know quite well that Andy is a gentleman, and we do have the men to chaperone us." (Waving her hand over her shoulder at the Troopers standing guard nearby.)

Casey nodded again. "Very well. I will see you back at the Hotel then."

At Ellie's nod, he turned to the prostitute, offering her his arm and saying. "Lead on if you will, Miss."

The girl looked quite pleased by the courtesy as she curtsied and took his arm to lead him to the brothel.

Andy signalled two of the men to follow Casey and the girl.

Ellie and Andy watched them go, then Andy sent another man to find Chuck and Sarah and tell them about this development. With that he stood, offering his hand to Ellie to assist her in rising, and they strolled back to the Hotel arm in arm with the rest of the men following.

Chuck and Sarah returned to the hotel less than half an hour after Ellie and Andy, as this was more important than gathering general information. Soon after they arrived, one of the men who'd gone after Casey turned up to tell them where Casey had gone to, and at Chuck's suggestion Andy sent him back with four more of the men and their rifles so that Casey would have support available if anything went wrong.

Chuck and Sarah questioned Ellie and Andy, but there wasn't much more that they could tell them, the girl had appeared to be genuine enough as a young prostitute, and Casey had obviously believed that the situation bore further investigation, otherwise he wouldn't have gone with her. After that, there wasn't much that they could do until Casey returned.

When Casey arrived with the detail that Andy had sent for him two hours later, everyone was waiting anxiously in Chuck and Sarah's suite. Once she'd assured herself that he seemed fine, and apparently nothing untoward had happened to him, Sarah launched into a diatribe in a strong Southern accent.

"Oh Uncle John, how could you do this? How could you shame the family by visiting a house of ill repute so openly as that? Whatever am I to tell Mama? She will be mortified!"

Casey growled at her, but only a little, as he could see the relief that she was trying to cover up at his safe return. With no further ado, he launched into his explanation.

"Madam Gertie is apparently a Pinkerton Agent, Gertrude Verbanski. The Pinkertons have been hired by Wells Fargo to look into who is trying to move into the gold and silver market here, so they set her up as the madam of a small but fancy brothel to collect information from the men coming into town."

"When we turned up and started asking the sort of questions that people who were trying to buy up claims and the like do, we caught her attention. As I was apparently the only unattached man in the group with any authority, she decided to ply me with attention to find out what we were here for."

Hattie couldn't help letting Carina slip out for a moment as she smirked at him. "So, did you get anything good from her Johnny?"

He looked at her coolly for a moment before he responded. "She was quite accomplished, almost as good as some others I've had, but she slipped up and let me know what she was after, so I declared myself as a Marshal and that was when she told me she was a Pinkerton, she showed me her badge to prove it. She also gave me some leads on a number of newcomers around here that she's been keeping an eye on, and promised that she'll get word to us if she hears anything more."

Chuck asked. "Do you think she will?"

Casey shrugged. "It's in her interest to do so, if we deal with them, the Pinkertons can still tell Wells Fargo that the problem's been dealt with and get paid, and she doesn't have to risk trying to take them on with the handful of Pinkertons that she has here and over in Carson City, so yeah, I'm thinking that she will."

* * *

Chuck nodded at that. "So, where to from here?"

Sarah stepped in at that point (strictly speaking, Carina/Hattie was the senior Secret Service Agent as she had a few years in the Secret Service on her, but Sarah had always been the best, even from before she came across to the North, so Hattie was happy to defer to her).

"I think that you, Ellie, Andy and I should start looking into the prospects that we have for investments to head off the Ring, while Casey, Hattie and Tom follow up these leads from Madam Gertie on the suspected Ring people, along with the ones that we've put together ourselves so far."

Casey and Hattie nodded at that, and Chuck and the others agreed as well, so they got organised and headed out for their respective assignments. For the 'prospects' team, they couldn't really split up, as Chuck was the only one who had any in-depth knowledge of mining matters, or what was, or was not, viable processing technology from his acquired memories and engineering knowledge and experience, so evaluating the prospects and negotiating the deals when they looked worthwhile took rather longer than identifying them had.

In addition to that, Casey, Hattie and Tom, with their Trooper details, were watching the camps and/or activities of those who were on any of the lists that were regarded as acting suspiciously (theirs or 'Madam Gertie's), but if they decided that the person or group was indeed suspicious, they had to come and get Chuck to see whether he could identify them via the memories.

Over the course of the next three and a half weeks that they were doing this, Madam Gertie's prostitutes came to collect Casey a number of times, saying that Madam Gertie needed to speak with him. None of the team (including Tom and Andy) had any doubts about what was happening in these 'talks' and Sarah, Ellie and Hattie made no attempt to try to hide the fact that they were disappointed with him for it, but Casey just stared them down and challenged them to say anything about it.

Chuck did try to get Sarah to let the matter go, pointing out that Casey was a good man, but men had needs, and it wasn't as though he'd had any chance to have those needs met as he'd been with them pretty much constantly for nearly a year now.

Sarah challenged him on that. "What about you, you told me that you hadn't been with a woman before we met, but you didn't explode or anything of the kind."

Chuck took her hands. "No, I hadn't had anything to do with any woman since Jill when I met you, and I hadn't done _that_ before you, but I was waiting for an angel, and low and behold you arrived."

"What I'm saying is that we can't damn Casey for not living by our standards, he IS a good man, and just look at the reason she contacted him in the first place, he's the only one of us who isn't attached to someone. It can't be easy for him, seeing all of us together when he's alone."

Sarah nodded, looking contrite. "Yes, you're right, I'm not being fair to him, it's just that he's been my shining light ever since I was twelve, so it's a shock to find that he has feet of clay, just as we do."

She paused before continuing. "Something changed him before the war Chuck, I am certain that the warm, caring man that we see flashes of now and then used to be the way that he was before, but he had something wrest from him, and he hasn't been the same man since. I've tried to ask him about it, but it is something that he just won't share."

Chuck held her, and as they drew comfort from one another, they both thought on the fact that Casey had no-one for this.

When Casey walked into the dining room for breakfast the next morning, Sarah went up to him to embrace him, going up on tip toe to kiss him on the cheek and say. "I'm sorry Uncle John, I have been being unfair to you and you didn't deserve it."

Casey looked at her with his eyebrow raised. "What brought this on?"

Sarah looked down, speaking quietly. "I'm ashamed to say that Chuck had to point out to me how unfair I was being, as I couldn't see it until he made me face it, please believe that I am truly sorry."

He embraced her, and Chuck couldn't help thinking that, grown woman that she was, she still looked like a little girl beside him. Casey caught Chuck's eye over Sarah's head and nodded his thanks, Chuck merely nodded back, it was nothing but his due.

* * *

After breakfast, they gathered in Chuck and Sarah's suite again to discuss the status of the operation. Chuck and Sarah reported that they'd done all the viable deals, and the majority of the investments had gone into the Crown Point, and to a lesser degree, Belcher mines.

The rest of the investments were spread across the Consolidated Virginia Silver Mine, a number of processing concerns, and mines capable of producing large quantities of lower grade ores. With the rail to cheaply transport the ore and mills and smelters capable of processing the ore effectively, the lower grade mines could now produce quite reasonable yields. That meant that the Ring would be going after them sooner or later, but they were effectively locked out now, with the investments that 'Broken Circle' had made.

This brought them back to the issue of the Culper Ring's local activities. Between Casey, Hattie and Chuck, they'd identified two camps that were definitely Culper Ring, because Chuck had identified Ring members there. Casey had been holding off moving against them until Chuck and Sarah had finished their deals (Chuck was the one who identified the viable prospects and their value, but Sarah was the one who actually negotiated the deals, because there was no-one better at that).

Now that those deals were completed, it was time to move in. Their initial plan had been to do it just as they had at the Alamosa river, eliminate the hired guns and then interrogate and eliminate the Culper Ring members, but it wasn't as simple as it had been at the Alamosa river, because there was the local law to consider here. Casey's status as a U.S. Marshal would cover them as far as arresting these people went, but executing and interrogating (torturing) them, that would be difficult to explain, no matter what they had done.

Chuck had another thought and went back to the Ring camps (with Sarah and a few Troopers, of course) to check into the hired guns in more detail. Previously he'd done no more than check whether they were part of the Ring or not, but now he was checking his acquired memories to try and confirm their real identities and determine whether they had any outstanding warrants against them.

This exercise paid off and he'd spent a few hours scribbling madly in his notebook as he watched the camps and recorded the real names of the hired guns and just what they were wanted for. Once they had enough information that they could use to convince the local law, they armed up and moved in on the camps.

Anyone who wouldn't surrender and tried to shoot it out was dealt with definitively (and it was surprising how many of them did that with nearly forty pistols and rifles pointing at them), but several of the hired guns surrendered because they believed that they were safe, hiding under the names that they were currently using.

The seven or eight actual Ring members (who had been identified to the Troopers, so they suffered no worse injuries than being shot in the arm or the leg) were spirited away to somewhere further out so Casey could interrogate them. Afterwards the bodies were dumped back in the camp, with the story that they'd tried to fight it out.

Casey had worked fast on the Ring members, and he was back in the camp with the bodies by the time the local law arrived from Carson City. When challenged, Casey showed them his Marshal's badge and gave them the story about the shoot out, and then they went through the lists of who each of the hired guns were and what they'd done.

They hired wagons in Virginia City to cart the prisoners and bodies up to Reno, and when they arrived in Reno, they handed them over to the law and booked themselves into the Riverside Hotel, putting the mules into a stable nearby.

They also sent off the telegrams to organise for the railroad cars they required to be put together to take them through to California, hoping that they'd have them by the time the trials were over.

They discovered that there actually was a benefit in dealing with the Culper Ring's hired guns legally (or as close to legal as they could manage under the circumstances). This was that the combined bounty that they received for those thirty odd wanted killers that they'd either dealt with or arrested had been over $50,000. This money them helped top up their cash box so that they could buy up claims etc at the next location without the bother of having to find banks holding enough cash to do so.

Surprisingly, the trials of the men that they'd arrested only took two days to get through and the train arrived with their Pullman and horse cars attached a day after they finished, so they paid their bills in Reno, loaded up their mules and luggage and settled into the Pullman cars for the slow grind over the Sierras on their way to California.

* * *

Chuck was quiet when they got on the train, because as much as he accepted that it was necessary to remove the men like those they'd killed, that much killing still bothered him. Seeing this, Sarah took him off to their drawing room so that they could just lay down together and try to put that behind them.

Some time later, there was a soft knock on the door and Ellie called to say that they were pulling into Truckee soon.

They grabbed their jackets and went to check on the mules when they pulled into Truckee, to ensure that they had feed and water and that the blankets that had been tied onto them were properly in place before they began the slow haul up to the summit tunnel, and the slow descent down to Cisco on the other side.

They also wanted to light lanterns in the Horse cars, to give some light and warmth in there, for the mules as well as them when they came back to check on the mules as the train went through the tunnels, as they expected to be doing. They were done and had the horse cars closed up again by the time the train was due to pull out of Truckee.

It took the train a couple of hours to climb to the Summit Tunnel, and they did go into the horse cars to quieten the mules when they were frightened by the smoke and fumes in the tunnels.

Some of the Troopers stayed with the mules in the last four horse cars until the train reached Cisco, as it wasn't safe to try climbing across the tops of the cars with the low roof in the tunnels, or in the driving snow that they encountered after the train had exited the tunnels on the coast side.

Chuck and Sarah stayed with their mules through the tunnels, as they found a peace with the mules that they needed after the discussions that they'd had, but they returned to their Pullman car once they'd exited the tunnels.

At Cisco, the Troopers from the horse cars returned to the Pullman cars, and they were told to stay in the warmth when they unloaded the mules to give them a break at the stop in Colfax, because they had been half frozen by the time they'd reached Cisco (they weren't made of as hardy stuff as the mules).

* * *

Late the next morning, they were pulling into San Francisco on the ferry, and Sarah couldn't help but be dragged along with Chuck's excitement for this new city. San Francisco was different from both the old cities of the East Coast like Boston or New York that they were used to, and the sprawling towns that were called cities in the West. It was new and vibrant, but it had a substance that those cities of the West had lacked. Even the memories in Chuck's head didn't have anything quite like it.

They had agreed back in Reno, after reading through the latest packets of information that Uncle Sam had had sent to them at the Riverside Hotel while they were in Virginia City, that their course of action upon reaching San Francisco should be to book passage straight down to San Diego, as there had been some significant gold strikes around Julian down near San Diego which were likely to have attracted the Culper Ring's attention.

Their original plan had been to look into such industries as coal, and oil, and railroads in California, as these were boom industries that they expected the Culper Ring would be trying to get a bite of to aid their expansion. They would still be investigating those areas, but this gold strike down in Julian was more urgent, as they would have to move quickly if they were to head off any moves by the Ring, or to get a foothold themselves, so it was decided that they'd take the steamer to San Diego, look into the situation in Julian, and then work their way back up to San Francisco from there.


	11. Gold Diggers and the City of Angels

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

They'd known that they wouldn't be able to walk straight onto a steamer as soon as they arrived, so they'd also wired their law firm to book them into a nice hotel close enough to the docks to make getting to and from the docks a simple matter, and to put their mules in a livery stable nearby.

These arrangements made it easy, once they'd landed in San Francisco, to put the mules in the stable and sign into the hotel, leaving all their 'luggage' at the hotel with half a dozen troopers guarding it (a similar number guarded their mules as well), then go out to secure their passage to San Diego as soon as possible.

It took them the rest of the day to locate a ship that had sufficient capacity available to carry their party, was leaving soon and was fast enough to get them to San Diego in good time. Eventually they secured passage on a fast steamer which was departing in a day and a half, so they should be in San Diego in four days or so.

It had been tempting to just charter the steamer to get them there sooner, but it would have attracted too much attention to be tossing money about like that, and it would have saved them a day at most, more probably no more than half a day once the ship was coaled up and provisioned for the the trip down the coast. As a result, they would be spending two nights and a day in San Francisco, which Chuck was obviously not at all upset about (it was hardly a secret, as he was positively bouncing with excitement).

There was something else to be done while they before they left, though, and this was to purchase some good wagons. They had originally planned to acquire wagons in San Diego, but when they stopped to consider that there was a gold rush down there at the moment, questions about wasted time and the probable shortage (if not lack) of sound wagons available there led them to reconsider that path.

Negotiations with the shipping company brought them the agreement that wagons, lashed down on the deck with their 'luggage' stored inside, would be shipped for a nominal increase over the agreed shipping fee for their 'luggage', so John went wagon shopping with Tom, Hank and a number of the more experienced troopers while the others went to discover San Francisco.

The wainwrights were, quite frankly, nonplussed when the men told them that delivery of the wagons wouldn't be necessary, and then began unsaddling the mules they'd brought with them and dressing them in the harnesses that they'd brought along.

They hitched this team up to first of the two long Prairie Schooner wagons that they'd bought, hitching the second wagon in turn to the rear of the first before they tossed their tack into the wagon beds and drove off to the livery stable where they were keeping their mules.

There was no need for a team of eight with the empty wagons of course, they just wanted to test the team and wagon setup that they planned to use.

* * *

Meanwhile, with their passage booked and everything organised, they were free to explore San Francisco. The others took delight in Chuck's childlike enthusiasm at every new thing that he found, all the more so because only Ellie had ever seen him like this before. He hadn't been this free since that night when the Daemon killed their parents and he'd acquired its memories.

Other than Ellie, only Tom and the others from Cripple Creek had known him prior to that night, and that being said, they'd only known him in the war, which was hardly the atmosphere that was conducive to this sort of enthusiasm.

Seeing that the Count of Monte Cristo was playing at the California Theater (again, but he'd never seen it), Chuck cajoled the others into agreeing to go, and as soon as they'd capitulated, promptly went to buy a dozen box seat tickets. None of them were surprised when John and the older Sergeants begged off attending, but they had no trouble getting Adele to agree and finding five of the troopers who were also interested in coming to see the play, as they'd never seen one.

They all enjoyed the play, and the night went wonderfully, up to the point where they were walking the couple of streets over to catch the horsecar back to their hotel (as the lines that went past the theatre went to Nob Hill and the respectable areas around it, not down to the docks where their hotel was).

As soon as they left the street that the California Theater was on, the streets became quite deserted, but this didn't worry them in the least, not until they were surrounded by a gang of twenty to thirty hoodlums (it was a bit difficult to see who was in the shadows). At first they thought that this just your typical gang looking to prey on a smaller group of people, and especially the four beautiful women in their company.

The disgusting comments and catcalls all seemed to support this just being a gang of Hoodlums, until Chuck caught the face of one man in the lamplight, and hence started paying attention to the other men. He quietly murmured to Sarah that this was the Ring as he tried to identify more Ring members, but of the ones who came into the light, he identified only two, Kieran Ryker, and Nicholas Quinn.

He indicated the two to Sarah and Hattie as he unbuttoned his coat to give him access to his pistols. Ellie, Tom and Andy noted what he was doing and began to follow suit (Sarah and Hattie had already done so). Half of the troopers had taken in what was going on and unbuttoned their coats, as well, looking at the others so they'd get the message.

When their party was ready for action, Chuck turned on Ryker (as he seemed to be the talker of the group) and asked. "As I'm sure your masters in the Ring didn't order you to molest the ladies with us tonight Ryker, what is the purpose of this? Are you trying to cover up the nature of what you're here for by goading us into reacting so that these fools you've duped into joining you don't catch wind of what you're up to, or are you simply so disgusting that you'd attack innocent women at any opportunity?"

Ryker froze at that, as did Quinn and three others, but the rest of the gang just milled about in confusion. Chuck glanced at Sarah and Hattie, and they nodded to those who'd given themselves away, Ellie, Tom and Andy had also picked up on most, if not all, of this group, so what was needed at this point was to drive the others off and capture those representing the Ring.

Sarah caught Chuck's eye and nodded, signalling him that it was time to move into action. The two of them had their pistols out in a flash, with Hattie right behind and Ellie, Tom and Andy not far behind her. The troopers lagged a little, but they were still ahead of the Ring members.

Apparently the Ring didn't know much about the team, or if Ryker and the others had been told what they could do, they still thought that they were better, because they kept bringing their pistols up. Sarah and Chuck disarmed the five with arm and leg shots, and the reports were too close together to tell apart. Ryker and the others let off some shots but they didn't come close to hitting anyone.

Unfortunately, the gang that they'd brought with them were more loyal than smart, and they attacked when the gunfire started. While Chuck and Sarah went to get the guns away from the Ring members and knock them out, Hattie and the others engaged the rest.

As the smoke cleared, about a dozen of the gang were fleeing, half of them with gunshot wounds. The rest were down, or dead. Chuck saw movement out of the corner of his eye and spun, raising his pistol, only to put it up when he saw that it was some Chinamen.

Chuck called out to them in Chinese and they froze, shocked to be addressed in their language, and a very old version of it at that. That gave him the chance to get them talking, and even though they did not want to be involved they agreed to help, because these gangs had been preying on their people for a while now.

They quickly produced a cart that the bound and gagged Ring members were loaded into, and a few of the troopers went off with them while the others moved the Ring members' pistols to some of the other Hoodlums' bodies, straightened their own clothes and then hurried on to the horsecar stop to get the horsecar back to their hotel.

They were waiting for the horsecar at the stop, acting as frightened theatre goers, when the police came galloping through, and told them that they'd heard shooting back towards the theatre a few minutes before. One of the policemen waited with them until the horsecar arrived, and they thanked him profusely as they boarded the horsecar.

On the horsecar, Sarah clutched at Chuck, playing the frightened young wife to perfection, as their proximity that way made it possible for them to talk without anyone else overhearing them. They agreed on the best plan to round off what Chuck had already put into play with the Chinamen, as they were taking the Ryker and the others back to the livery stable where their mules were.

The livery stable was actually the perfect location, as their men guarding the mules were the only ones there that night. This way, they had only to go back to the hotel and send Casey and the sergeants to the livery stable to get the information out of them, and then dispose of them.

So that was what they did, John and the others slipped out when they heard what had happened, and returned three or four hours later. They had dumped the bodies in the districts where the gangs generally came from, making it look like they'd bled to death after getting shot and beaten in the fight near the theatre.

In the morning, John told them what he'd gotten out of the men. The key information was that Ring had definitely known that they were in San Francisco and where to find them.

This unfortunately meant that there appeared to be a leak of some sort at Uncle Sam's end, because they trusted the few people in Tolbert, Ives and Jager who'd known about the arrangements for them in San Francisco were implicitly.

They sent coded telegraphs to Uncle Sam and the law firm to tell them what was going on.

John had extracted more than that from Ryker and the others, which was useful, but his news, and the fact that they'd had to fight it out and kill well over a dozen of the ones who'd attacked them the night before dampened their spirits.

* * *

After that, Sarah dragged Chuck out to go sightseeing, and the rest of their core group and a dozen of the troopers tagged along, spread out just enough to cover up the fact that they were all together.

Sarah and Ellie were working hard to try and get Chuck out of his moodiness about the incidents of the night before, but weren't having much success.

John was actually the one who came up with something to help get Chuck's mind off things, as he asked whether Chuck could design a custom chuck box for one of the prairie schooners that they'd just bought, so that they could get it made up in time to take with them.

It didn't capture Chuck's attention for long, but doing the calculations to make it to fit their wagon and properly carry everything necessary did capture enough of his attention to break his mood. He didn't miss what John had done though, and thanked him for it, as did Sarah.

This wasn't just a exercise to get Chuck's mind off the night before though, it was something that they did actually need as they'd probably be living with this setup for at least two months, if not more, so as soon as Chuck had drawn it up they located a cabinet maker who promised that he could build it to Chuck's plans that day. They were quite happy with what he'd made for them, and paid him extra before having it delivered to the livery stable where their wagons were.

Bringing up the chuck box made them realise that there was a long list of _other_ things that they'd need, so they spent the day shopping for pots and pans, plates etc, as well as spices and dried food that would extend and enhance their meals while they travelled. They knew that they would be able to find far more exotic and interesting spices and the like in San Francisco than they would elsewhere in California, so they went looking for them. Adele, as their cook, took charge of this portion of their shopping, and she sent more than one shopkeeper scuttling away in fear when they tried to fob things that weren't up to her standards off on them.

They also realised that they'd clean forgot about bedding, so a quick hunt around San Francisco led them to a factory that made bedrolls and they bought three dozen standard bedrolls, plus half a dozen oversized ones for Chuck (so that he and Sarah could share) and the other oversized members of their party on the spot. These added whole 'nother layer to the wagons' loads, but they needed them.

It had taken them some searching to find sail makers who could cut and stitch the extra covers for the wagons (also calculated and sketched by Chuck from a design he got the memory of), and more to the point, finish the canvas to their requirements that day, but they managed. The purpose of the extra covers was that they could be pulled out to form two generous side tents on each wagon. The ladies (and perhaps others) would generally be sleeping in the wagons on bedrolls laid out on top of the load, but the side tents would provide shelter for most of the others in the party (some of them would always be on guard) if needed.

That night, they packed their luggage and equipment into the wagons, demounting the bows and laying them down on the load in the wagons so that they could strap everything down tight, then the wagons and mules were delivered to the docks and loaded onto the steamer. A detail of the troopers was stationed on the ship overnight to guard the wagons' contents and the mules, rotating every few hours between the cold deck duty, warmer stable duty, and rest.

In the morning, they had only to check out of the hotel, settle up and walk down to the docks with their travel bags to board the steamer. Less than an hour later, they were under way to San Diego. The passage down the coast was uneventful, the troopers shared guard duties over their wagons and mules, but aside from that, the two and a half days or so that they steamed along the western coastline were a period of rest for everyone.

* * *

In San Diego, the wagons were lifted off the ship and onto the pier from the steamer, then they manhandled them off the pier to the docks. Once on the docks, they untied the coverings over the wagons, unpacking things such as the water barrels, the harnesses, the tack for the riding mules etc before mounting the bows and fixing the two covers over them for each wagon.

They also slung the large water barrels on either side of each wagon, preparing to fill them before they left San Diego, and they would be stocking up on supplies for the party as well. Being a gold rush town, they understood how inflated the prices of everything would be in Julian (or Banner, there was word of the centre of activity moving), so they planned to get what they needed in San Diego. Their last actions before they left the docks were to saddle all the riding mules and harness up the team of six mules to the lead wagon.

Their party was an imposing sight as it left the docks, over three dozen heavily armed riders and a double covered wagon hauled by a team of six, with more mounts being led. It was enough to worry many citizens as they weren't used to seeing armed bands that large. This proved handy actually, as the merchants they visited tended to name a low price in an effort to have them on their way as quickly as possible.

Once they'd stocked up on any food, water and other supplies that they hadn't picked up in San Francisco, they headed out for Julian (or whatever it was now), but they didn't push too hard, stopping for the night a bit over half way there near the Ramona stagecoach station.

Part of the reason for this early stop was to check how they travelled with the wagons and practice setting up and breaking camp before they were in the middle everyone up there. As they had plenty of time, they set up the side tents on both wagons, so they had room to roll out the bedrolls on the ground around the wagons.

In the morning, Adele, Ellie John and a couple of helpers were up before dawn, getting breakfast started for the group. By the time breakfast was ready, all of the bedrolls had been rolled up and packed away in the wagons and the side tents rolled away as well. Once everyone had had breakfast, the designated detail cleaned up while the mules were saddled or harnessed to the wagon, and they were on the road again early.

They pulled into Julian quite early in the afternoon, and the town was pretty much deserted, by mining town standards anyway, not to mention freezing cold, so they asked just for directions to Banner, and they were pointed to the Banner Grade Toll Road down to the new town.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the men collecting tolls for the road quickly dropped their exorbitant demands and agreed to a fair toll for the group (in accordance with the posted tolls), after they took in the number of guns that this group was sporting, so they were down in Banner early enough to select a camp site that didn't encroach on anyone else's territory and set up for a few days with the side tents, a decent corral for the mules and such.

* * *

There wasn't a lot to the town, but there were a few saloons, which would serve well enough to meet people and talk. These saloons were rougher than the ones they'd been in before though and Chuck didn't want Sarah and Ellie, or Hattie for that matter, in them. Sarah patiently explained to him that she had to do her job, and that this was nothing that she hadn't dealt with before. When he kept arguing, she just kissed him and said. "It's necessary Chuck, I have to go."

The look Ellie gave him said 'If you open your mouth, I'm going to punch you!' and Hattie just laughed, kissing him on the cheek and saying. "You're sweet Chuck."

Chuck looked at Casey and Casey nodded at him, basically saying 'Don't worry, they won't be bothered.' with that nod, so Chuck gave in.

Sarah and Ellie had to laugh in the saloon though, because Chuck had usurped Casey's role of 'big scary stranger who scares men off'. Most of the miners who came up to the newcomers were OK, but any man who sent a leering or otherwise inappropriate look at Sarah or Ellie quickly turned and left when they saw the expression on Chuck's face, because there was something about that look that said that he knew how to use the guns he was wearing, and he'd do so if they said or did anything he didn't like.

Luckily, most of the miners had been up in Julian for a while, and hadn't forgotten how to behave properly around ladies, so they probably didn't miss out on too much because of the few men that Chuck did scare away. Just the fact that their party wasn't like anything most people there had ever seen was enough to have most people flocking over to talk to them, and once he was convinced that they'd behave themselves, Chuck tended to drop the scary man role and turn back to his normal friendly self.

* * *

Within a couple of days, they had most of the stories about who was doing well, who needed money, who'd been pushed out of their claim and who was pressuring miners into selling. They'd also found out that most of the ones who'd lost their mines had been going to Miss Sasha and her girls. This was strange, as apparently 'Miss Sasha' didn't have a big string of girls, just Miss Sydney, Miss Alex, Miss Robin and Miss Jill.

The miners shared that they had to call them that 'cause Miss Sasha was always real particular about you being polite, and they seen what happened to men who riled her, anyway, her girls may not have been the youngest girls in town, but they sure were the purtiest.

Chuck and the others looked at each other when they heard that, as it sounded like the Culper Ring had taken a leaf out of the Pinkerton's book and set up a brothel to get the information on who to go after.

They finished their drinks and headed back to their camp. When they were out of earshot of everyone else they turned to Casey and he swore. "I know Damnit! You don't need to look at me with those eyes, I know I have to be the one who goes in there to check them out!"

Chuck interjected that he should try and look at them before he went in, so that he knew what he was walking into, but Casey angrily cut him off. "Don't you think I can handle a few women?"

He quietened down when Sarah cleared her throat markedly, and after a while he nodded.

"Point taken, I do understand that some women can be dangerous, I just don't like this!"

They left him alone after that.

The next day, Sarah, Chuck and Hattie went to a position where they could watch Miss Sasha's house (well, it was more accurately a few shacks which had been cobbled together out of rough lumber, but it was more than the tents that made up most of Banner), but after they'd been watching for a couple of hours, Chuck suddenly swore, using language neither woman had ever heard him use before. Sarah looked at him and he indicated the younger, attractive brunette who was taking sheets from the line. He didn't say anything so she gave him a 'Yeah, so?' look.

He looked at her and just said "That's Jill."

"OK, she's Miss Jill, but have you seen anything important about her?"

He shook his head angrily. "No! That's _JILL!_ "

Sarah started to say "What…?", but then her eyes widened, "You mean that's _YOUR_ Jill, the one you broke up with because of Gordon and the baby?"

He nodded tersely, then held his hand up as the others came out of the house. Five minutes later he knew all he needed to about Sasha Banacheck, Sydney Prince, Alexandra Forrest, Robin Cunnings and Jill Roberts. With that he moved back to where he could stand up without being seen, immediately turning around and walking back to their camp without a word when he did.

All the way back, Hattie was trying to find out from Sarah what the hell was going on, but Sarah just cut her off tersely with. "Not now Carina!"

Back at the camp, Chuck went straight to Casey and told him that Sasha Banacheck was a killer, but from what his memories told him, the other four were just whores and swindlers.

The blunt way he said that made Casey and the others in earshot turn to stare at him, but their attention turned to Sarah when she said angrily. "That's not entirely true now, is it, Chuck, why don't you tell him about the part where one of them was your intended a few years ago?"

Ellie spun on Chuck. "Jill? Jill Roberts, that bitch who was rutting with Bryce Larkin all the while that the two of you were talking about marriage? The one who tried to trick you into marrying her to cover up her shame and give his bastard a name? _SHE's_ one of the whores that we're dealing with?"

Chuck shot Sarah an accusing look before turning to Ellie to say "Yes!" tersely and then walk off.

Behind him, Ellie looked furious, Sarah was crying her eyes out, Casey and Hattie looked shocked, and everyone else just looked confused, but that confusion was shaded with foreboding, because they knew that this could not end well!

* * *

Sarah went after Chuck as soon as she was able, to find him with the mules. He'd instinctively sought them out in an attempt to calm the tempest in his soul, just as he had after they were done with the business at Virginia City.

She approached him hesitantly. "Chuck? Chuck, I'm sorry. I. I didn't mean to say what I did, it just came out. I. I've never been jealous before in my life and I obviously don't handle it well. I was just hurt, and angry, and I was thinking about what you told me about how you'd been planning to spend your life with her, because that was something that we never had! I was feeling that us, well that maybe it was just something that you thought you should do, you had to do, and that made me wonder whether you would have rathered be with her, given a choice, and that made me lash out, but I didn't mean it, truly."

"Chuck, please say something! Talk to me, please!"

Chuck didn't turn away from the mule or say a word, and after a while Sarah turned to stumble away, hardly able to see through her tears. As she stumbled away from Chuck, and their camp, one of the town's gamblers who'd been watching them from a distance smiled as he thought that he might have a shot here, because the man obviously wasn't feeling protective towards her now, whatever had happened, and even with her face covered in tears the way it was this was a beautiful woman.

When she was what he thought was a safe distance away from the man and the others, he approached her and feigned concern, putting his arm around her to turn her and lead her away from everyone. When he touched her though, it snapped her out of the state she was in and she pushed him away, slapping his hand away and drawing her knife when he reached for her again. "Don't touch me!"

"Now little lady, don't be like that, I was just worried about you, that man, he seemed to hurt you and I wanted to make sure you were all right." He reached for her again and she slashed his palm, but he'd hardly had time to curse at her before he was struck by something like a charging bull.

As with Jeffries, the practices that Chuck recalled as the rage at the thought of someone attacking Sarah came over him were all about inflicting damage, and it seemed like hardly a moment had passed before Sarah's voice registered to him.

"Chuck! Stop! You're killing him! You need to stop! Please! Come back, I need you!"

When that got through to him, he stopped and stepped back, letting the gambler crumple to the ground. Sarah ran to him and buried her face in his chest, crying again. He kissed the top of her head and then stroked her hair as he whispered to her.

"Shush. Shush, you should know that you're the only possible choice for me. I think it's kismet, fate I mean. The two of us were meant to be together and anything before you and me was nothing but a mistake. I didn't think I'd ever have to tell you that, because I thought that you'd _know_ , just as I do."

Sarah sniffed as she pulled her head back to look up at him. "I _DO_ know that I'm meant to be with you and that there will never be anyone else for me, but when you wouldn't answer me I thought you were telling me that you'd chosen her!"

"I was angry and ashamed that I ever could have fallen for her lies, or his, and I was trying to deal with that, that's all it was, I'm sorry."

At that moment they were interrupted by Ellie, who'd been working on the man almost under their feet all the while they'd been talking without them noticing. "Show me your hands Chuck."

"I'm fine Ellie, tend to him."

"He'll live, hopefully, but I can't do any more for him, and I don't believe that you could have beaten him half to death like that without doing any damage to yourself, now show me your hands!"

Chuck gave in and extended his hands for her to examine, she was surprised, but relieved, to find that there was nothing more serious than broken skin to worry about.

By that stage, a crowd from the town had gathered and were demanding to know what had happened.

It was starting to look like they may have a situation that they might have to shoot their way out of (which they didn't want to do, they didn't want relatively innocent blood on their hands), when a voice called out from a little way away. "I saw it all, I know what happened!"

The crowd turned, and one of the men laughed in disdain. "Barnes? He's never seen anything but the bottom of a bottle!"

"Shut up Milbarge! He may drink, but Jeff's as honest as the day is long, and if he says he saw it, we're going to hear what he has to say! Go on Jeff."

"Well these two was havin' an argument over there" (pointing at their camp) "and the tall man came over to talk to the mules over there, such pretty mules. I miss my horses back in Los Angeles, I wonder if Big Mike will give me my job at the stable back?"

"Jeff?"

"Wha..? Oh yeah, well the pretty lady went over to talk to the tall man and she were pleading with him and crying, but I guess he were still angry 'cause he wouldn't talk to her, so she eventually started walking off this way" (waving to indicate Sarah's original direction of travel) "crying her eyes out."

"Well he" (pointing at the gambler) "were standing over there" (pointing) "watching the whole thing, and he waited until she got to here and then went up to her and tried to turn her around to lead her off over there" (pointing off into the woods away from the township) "and she pushed him away."

"He tried to grab her again and she slapped his hand away and said 'Don't touch me!' I think the tall man must of heard that because he started to turn around then, then he" (pointing at the gambler) "were telling her that he was just worried about her and stuff and tried to grab her again, so she cut him. But before he could do anything to her the tall man were here and he wupped him good!"

They looked down at the gambler, looking a little queasy as they asked. "What did he use to do this to him?"

Jeff shook his head. "Nothin', just his hands and his feet and things"

He did a clumsy but moderately accurate pantomime of the moves that Chuck had used on the gambler. Chuck and Sarah looked at each with raised eyebrows at just how accurate it was.

The folk who had any say in Banner looked at each other, it didn't seem possible that damage like this could be inflicted just by hands and feet, but the story sounded real, and Jeff would only tell them what he seen, so they nodded, then one of the more solid looking men turned to Chuck to say.

"Well, sir, from what Jeff has told us it appears that you were only defending your woman's.."

Chuck interrupted him with. "Wife! Sarah is my wife."

The man nodded nervously. "Yes, that you were only defending your wife's honour, and you didn't use more than your hands and feet on him, so we see no reason to take this any further, but we'd appreciate it if we didn't have any more episodes like this in our town."

Chuck nodded. "Yes sir, I'll see that it doesn't happen again, thank you." he extended his hand to the man and the man nervously shook it, nodding to Sarah with a "Ma'am" before he hurried away.

A man had turned up with a canvas stretcher, so they manhandled the gambler onto to it, carrying him off towards the middle of town.

Chuck turned to the man who had spoken up, extending his hand. "Jeff, is it? Thanks, you got us out of a bind there by speaking up."

Jeff shook his hand. "It was nothing, I just told them what I saw."

"Well, you got me out of a bind and I'm in your debt."

Jeff looked hopeful. "Do you think maybe I could talk to your mules? They're real nice!"

Chuck snorted and Sarah couldn't hide a smile as Chuck said. "Sure, come on and I'll introduce you to the boys so that they know that you've got permission to talk to the mules."

With that he put a friendly hand on Jeff's shoulder and steer him towards the corral, wrapping his other arm around Sarah's waist.

They left Jeff happily talking to the mules, noting that he was really good with them, actually, and went to talk over their plan of attack with Miss Sasha and her girls, after Chuck apologised to everyone for the way he'd reacted.

* * *

Now that Chuck had calmed down, Casey asked him what he knew about the women, other than the fact that one of them had been his intended not that long ago. Sarah shot him a warning look at that, and he apologised, but stressed that he needed to know everything Chuck had recalled about them that wasn't personal.

Chuck talked for over an hour about what he'd recalled, and the others looked at each other. Hattie was the one who said what needed to be said.

"Chuck, we're going to have to question them, all of them, we can't pass up on what they may know about the Ring."

Glancing at Sarah, she added. "I'll take the bitch whore."

Sarah was more surprised than Chuck was when Ellie piped up at that. "I'd like to have a few words with her myself if you don't mind?"

Hattie looked at Chuck with a raised eyebrow and when he shrugged and nodded, she nodded and said. "I'll see what I can do."

With that sorted, Chuck looked around the team. "Unfortunately, with the attention I've just brought down on us, I think we need to sort out any deals we can do before we make a move on Miss Sasha's girls or the rest of the Ring thugs here, and it may be worth declaring ourselves to the Sheriff up in Julian before we take action, too, otherwise it could get messy."

Casey and the others reluctantly agreed to that, and they talked over the short list that they'd be talking to, the Golden Chariot Mine, the Stonewall mine and a few other minor investments seemed the only ones viable to pursue, so they could probably do this in a day.

When the guards found Jeff asleep out by the mules that night, they carried him back to the tent and threw some blankets over him, so he wouldn't freeze.

The next morning, Chuck and Sarah went off with two Sergeants and half a dozen Troopers to talk to the mines that looked like good prospects, and with Sarah's help (and the gambler wuppin' story that was already getting around), they managed to do deals with everyone that they considered worthwhile.

While they were doing that, Casey went to Miss Sasha's and sampled her and all her girls, coming back with enough information to a) identify the team that they were using to take over the mines, and b) confirm that they definitely needed to question all of them.

That night the guards had to go through the same routine with Jeff as he fell asleep with the mules again.

After breakfast the next day, Casey and the girls went to 'Miss Sasha's. After Casey had incapacitated Sasha to start her interrogation, Hattie, Ellie and Sarah went to see the girls, knocking out Alex, Robyn and Sydney before they went to talk to Jill.

When Ellie walked into the room, Jill's eyes went wide, but she only managed to get "Ellie, what are you...?" out before Ellie slapped her so hard that she sprayed blood across the bed as she fell back onto it.

When Ellie when to stand in front of her, she tried to retreat, but the wall stopped her retreat far sooner than she would have liked. Ellie gave her a truly evil smile. "Oh, you don't need to worry about me Jill."

Jill looked hopeful. "I don't?"

Ellie shook her head, the smile never leaving her face. "No. You need to worry about Chuck's wife!"

Jill whipped her head around to look at Hattie, but she matched Ellie's smile as she shook her head and pointed at Sarah, and Jill turned her head back just in time to see Sarah's fist before it hit.

Hattie allowed Sarah about ten minutes of physical and verbal abuse, treating it as softening up the subject, before she took over and started the questioning.

True to her word, she allowed Ellie to ask her questions, and from Ellie's questions they found out that 'Uncle Woody' Woodcomb had recruited her to the Culper Ring, and Larkin as well (apparently it was 'Uncle Woody' and the Culper Ring who had pulled strings to get Larkin into the Secret Service to get information for them).

'Uncle Woody' had also come up with the 'relative' who was far enough away to avoid word getting back to her family, and after her son was born, she was put to work, seducing men that the Ring was interested in, or just using outright prostitution as a cover to collect information for them like she was now.

When she started refusing to answer Hattie's questions, Sarah held up her hand to tell Hattie to wait, and then said quietly. "I wouldn't test her if I was you, after all, you wouldn't want your son to become an orphan, would you?"

Jill whipped her head around to look at her. "What do you mean by that?"

Sarah gave a cold smile. "Oh, didn't I tell you? Bryce Larkin is dead, and I was the one who killed him! To be sure, the main reason why I put a bullet through his chest was that he was trying to shoot Chuck in the back after he'd surrendered to him, but it felt good! And I'm sure killing you would feel just as good."

Jill took in the wolfish grins all three women were giving her and started talking, giving up anything and everything that she knew in hope that she would come out of this alive.

The other three 'girls' were tougher nuts to crack, but they did crack. When they had gotten all that they could get from them, Sarah, Casey and Hattie sat them down (with Sasha's dead body in the room) and Sarah and Casey outlined their options. Their options basically came down to but one, not tell the Ring anything about this and disappear, and make sure that they and the Ring never saw them again.

'Miss Robin' didn't seem too bright, because she asked what their other options were, and Sarah shook her head. "If you want to live, that's it! If we find that you've told the Ring anything about us, or you work for the Ring ever again, then we'll track you down and..." She waved at Sasha on the floor.

The four women could see from Casey and the others' faces that what Sarah told them would happen unless they did exactly as she said, and they'd heard enough stories going around the Ring about this group to know that they were quite capable of doing it, so they did everything they could to convince them and Sarah that they would do as they were told.

The four women were packed and gone within the hour to catch that day's stage to San Diego. They were thinking that Casey's parting suggestion of Australia sounded like a good idea. Casey had let them have just enough money to get passages to there, but kept the rest of the money that they had to restock their money chest (they'd actually accumulated quite a bit working a gold rush town like that, and apparently 'Miss Sasha' had been holding the Ring's money to buy claims).

With Sasha and her girls dealt with, they then went out to the camp where the Ring's thugs were, and Chuck identified the two Ring representatives, as well as who all the hired guns were and what they were wanted for (he'd learned his lesson in Virginia City and wasn't leaving that question unanswered).

Once they had that information, they went into the camp, weapons ready, telling them to surrender, and put them down when they tried to shoot it out, all except for the Ring members, they were made to give up what they knew before they 'went down fighting'.

By the time someone had fetched the Sheriff from Julian, it was all over, they gave him details of who the wanted ones were (just about all of them) and what they were wanted for, and told him that they would come by later to collect the bounties on their way out of town.

When Sasha's body was found the Sheriff asked them about it, and Casey put up a good argument that Miss Sasha's missing workers would be the prime suspects in his book, adding that if it was him he'd head East to where he could get lost in the stagecoach and railroad lines. The Sheriff thanked him, agreeing that that sounded most likely what had happened.

* * *

With that, they packed up their camp and prepared to leave. Jeff was almost crying about being separated from the pretty mules, so on a whim Chuck asked if he'd like come with them as far as Los Angeles (as they were going there anyway).

They had to laugh at Jeff's response enthusiasm "Really, you'd do that? Oh Yes! Please Yes! Wait for me, I won't be long, I promise!" and with that he ran off to gather his meagre belongings (not much more than a bedroll, some basic prospecting gear and a Yellow Boy rifle), and true to his word he was back in less than half an hour.

It only took them one day to get back to San Diego, and upon arrival, they left the majority of the party, including Jeff, camped just outside the town while Chuck, Sarah, John, Ellie, Hattie, Tom, Andy and half a dozen troopers went on into town to book into the Horton House Hotel. Their first order of business was to get cleaned up, in fact the thought of a proper bath was a large part of their motivation to go back to San Diego, as their business there wasn't really that important.

They didn't stay in San Diego long, only a day or so to have some talks with the railroad. After their discussions, Chuck made a nominal investment in the Texas and Pacific Railway Company, no more than was required to ensure that they'd be notified if the Culper Ring tried to move in.

They already had investments in most of the key railroad companies across the country. The purpose of these investments were twofold, the first to prevent the Culper Ring from acquiring control of critical transportation infrastructure, and the second to simplify their own travel around the country. Without their stake in the railroad companies, they would have had a hard time getting their private cars hitched to trains or organising private trains when they needed to. The fact that the majority of the railroads were profitable enterprises didn't hurt their position on this either.

They'd also invested in the Western Union and Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Companies for the same reasons as they invested in the Railroad companies (and this also secured their ability to do wire transfers of money where necessary for additional funds).

Once they'd done the deal with the Texas and Pacific Railway Company, they packed up and rode back out to the camp. They didn't get further than Escondido that day. They camped for the night, heading out first thing in the morning to Rancho de La Laguna, as it was a long ride from there to the Rancho (at least 46 miles).

Chuck looked around at the geology of the area that they were passing through towards the end of the day and made a note that it would be worth keeping an eye on for some of the resources they were trying to cut the Culper Ring off from, as it had all the signs that it should have coal and the like.

The next morning they packed up and got away for another early start, as this leg to Rancho Santa Ana del Chino wasn't that much shorter than the previous day's ride (at around 41 miles). Those two long days of travel were wearing, especially on the mules. They'd changed the team on the wagons twice during each day, rotating saddle mules to harness and vice versa, but they were getting closer to their destination, and also to where they'd originally intended to head when they first arrived in California, the Bakersfield area just over a hundred miles North of Los Angeles.

* * *

They slept fairly well that night, knowing that the next day would take them into Los Angeles (at least it was only 34 miles for this leg), though truth be told they were a little nervous about Los Angeles, what with all the stories of the violence there, and in particular that Chinese massacre only a couple of months before.

Jeff's stories about the Lafayette Hotel and Big Mike's Livery Stable gave them something to look forward to though, especially as they'd received confirmation via telegraph while they were in San Diego from the Lafayette that they had capacity for the whole party.

They were hoping that they could rely on Jeff's assurances that Big Mike could accommodate their mules and wagon, and they'd be well looked after. They'd had no way of contacting this 'Big Mike', and a request to the Lafayette to see whether they could confirm the stables hadn't received a response, at least not before they'd left San Diego.

As they drew closer to Los Angeles in the afternoon, Chuck noted that the evidence of farming was becoming more common, as was the traffic on the road.

Jeff directed them to Big Mike's livery stable first (and looking up at the 'Powell's Livery Stable' sign, Chuck reflected that it was no surprise that they hadn't been able to contact them, especially when they found out that it was _AL_ Powell, Mike's cousin, who was in fact the nominal owner of the stables).

Luckily Jeff was at least right in that they were able put up their mules and wagon, and soon enough, all the mules had been unsaddled/unharnessed, rubbed down and settled into their corral with feed and water, with everyone pitching in it didn't take that long.

There was something wrong, though, because Al kept looking at Casey with a confused and thoughtful expression on his face, and that made Chuck wonder what was going through his mind.

When Al sent Jeff to get Mike and bring him back to meet them, they took that at face value, which was probably a sign of how tired they were, given that there was obviously something going on here.


	12. Pasts Collide

****Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.****

After they'd dealt with the mules, they manhandled the wagons back into one of the rear corners of the stable, and were organising what they'd be taking to the hotel when Jeff returned with Big Mike. It wasn't hard to see where his name came from because like his cousin, whatever shape he may have been in this younger days (and the way he moved showed a good deal of strength), Mike was rather rotund now.

Mike was quite jovial when he arrived, but when he saw Casey, his reaction was even more extreme than Al's, as he just stopped and stared.

When he blurted out "Captain Coburn?" Casey stiffened, turning slowly to look at him.

Casey stared him down, but then he responded. "Sergeant Tucker, I'm glad to see that you survived."

Turning to have a good look at Al, he added "You too Sergeant Powell, obviously I didn't recognise you before sorry, but it's hard to forget your cousin's bellow."

Chuck and the others were looking between Casey and Big Mike, dying to ask what the hell was going on but hoping that John would volunteer the information.

As it was, Big Mike wasn't patient enough to wait for that. "Captain, what happened? We was told that you was killed when your troop was attacked by the Paiutes up Pyramid Lake back in sixty!"

"I was wounded, yes, but even though I was left for dead by my troop, I didn't die."

John looked out the door of the stables as he continued, but his gaze went far further than the street outside.

"When the attack started, I was shot off my horse and rolled down the hill into the brush, and I'd started to crawl back up when I realised that my troop had already ridden off and left me. I couldn't take the Indians on with a bullet in my shoulder and nothing but a revolver, so I hid in the brush until all the Paiute had left, and then set out on foot for our camp. It took me two or three days to get there on foot in my condition, because I was off my head with wound fever half the time, but when I got there they'd all packed up and left."

"I started walking again, trying for Reno, or Virginia City if I couldn't find anyone there, and I came across a prospector's camp. He was dead, looked like he'd been snake bit, so all I could do for him was bury him. I did that, and then I took what he'd left behind, his horse, his pack mule, and everything else including his name. On that day Captain Alexander John Coburn died and I became John Casey."

Casey glanced at Mike and Al before continuing. "As you know, there wasn't anything left for me up there, and I didn't know where my troop had gone to, 'sides which, they'd decided that I was dead and left without so much as looking for me, so I just went back to Louisiana as John Casey."

"When the war started up about six months after I got home, I joined the Confederacy with the rest of the Louisianans, but just before the end of the war, something happened that made me give myself up to the Union. When I was taken to General Grant, he remembered me from when he'd come to talk to my class at West Point, and after I told him my story, he decided to give me another chance, so he reinstated me as a Captain in the Union Army."

He glanced at Chuck before turning back to Mike and Al. "And that's the story."

With that, he turned and walked out of the stable.

* * *

Mike called after him "Wait, Captain Coburn, there's something you need to know!", but John just kept walking.

Everyone was looking stunned after hearing that story, but Sarah and Chuck looked at each other then rushed over to Big Mike. Chuck let Sarah do the talking. "Mr Tucker?"

He shook himself and looked up. "Yes Miss?"

"John Casey has been Chuck and my partner for over a year, but he's been watching over _me_ for over nine years now, so I know him well enough to know that that's not the whole story. _Please_ tell us, what else happened to him up there? What did he mean by 'As you know, there wasn't anything left for me up there'?"

Mike looked conflicted, until Al came over and said. "Mike, they care for him and want to help him, you can see that! Tell them what happened, all of it!"

Mike nodded at that, but looked around. "OK. But not here though, let's go over to the store."

Chuck told Ellie and Hattie where they were going, and said that they didn't need an escort when Hattie went to call Tom. To mollify her, Chuck went to grab his and Sarah's carbines from their gear, holding them up as they headed for the door so that they'd see that they were properly armed.

In the shop, Mike gruffly told the two, well technically they could be called men, there to leave, and when they started to argue he just grabbed them by the scruff of their necks and dragged them to the door, tossing them out and locking it behind them. Then he came back to the counter and dug a bottle of whiskey out from under the counter, pulling the cork and taking a big swig before offering the bottle to Chuck and Sarah. They looked at each other and then Sarah reached for the bottle, taking a swig and passing it to Chuck, who in turn took a swig and handed it back to Big Mike.

After taking another big swig, Big Mike started talking. "OK, this story starts a few years before Captain Coburn died and became John Casey. Me and Al is the only family each other has, 'cause everyone else done got sold off or shot trying to escape. Anyway, we was lookin' after the master's horses for 'im, and one day in fifty six we took a couple of them horses and ran away from the plantation together. We managed to get up north of Mason and Dixon's line without being caught, mostly because no-one could catch the two of us on horseback, but even though we were mainly travelin' at night, we had to turn the horses loose after we got a couple of states over, because a couple of nigger boys on horses would have most probably been strung up as horse thieves if we been seen."

"When we got up north, we took whatever work we could get, but that weren't hardly enough to keep us in food, so we up and went to the Army and tried to show them how good we was with horses. Well we must have tickled that recruiter's fancy, because in late fifty six, when we was about seventeen or eighteen I guess, we don't rightly know how old we is, we got to be the first coloureds in the First Dragoons Regiment."

He took another swig from the bottle. "We was sent all the way up to Washington state to fight the Indians, and we was up there for a couple of years. That were where we met a fine young officer, fresh out of West Point in early fifty seven, his name was Lieutenant Alexander John Coburn, but we heard tell that he went by John or Johnny with his family and friends."

"Well Lieutenant Coburn were a fine young officer and a good man, and it weren't just the troops who seen that. One of the older officers, Major McHugh, had brought his daughter wid him, 'cause her mama done died on them when she was only little and they didn't have no family to speak of. All the young officers was trying to woo Miss Kathleen, 'cause she were such a pretty little thing, not to mention being the only single gal up there, but she only had eyes for Lieutenant Coburn."

"Lieutenant Coburn were a dedicated officer, to be sure, but there were no way he could ignore a pretty little thing like Miss Kathleen, 'specially when she made her Daddy have him over for dinner whenever he were in camp, and so they was betrothed by the end of fifty seven."

"Tha's when it all went plumb to Hell, 'cause Miss Kathleen's daddy got hi'self killed in one of them Indian attacks of early fifty eight, and some maiden aunt o' her's back east done decided that it weren't 'seemly' for a young lady to be stayin' in an army camp without her daddy, so they made her go back east to live with her. Our commanding officer were a mean old bastard though, and as much as Lieutenant Coburn begged to be allowed to make good and sure that Miss Kathleen got safely on that stage back east, he sent him out on patrol that day."

"Anywho, the party that were takin' Miss Kathleen to the stage were attacked and killed, and she were taken by the Indians. Lieutenant Coburn changed that day, 'cause the Colonel wouldn't even let him take a troop out to try and find her, he just told him that it would a waste of effort as she'd be dead or worse by now, and denied him at every turn, and that turned Lieutenant Coburn into something else, something real dangerous."

"He'd always been brave, real brave, but now, he just charged into anything without carein' whether he lived or died. The Colonel wouldn't give him no credit for what he done, no sir, but enough stories got themselves back to the war office to make sure that the Lieutenant done been promoted to Captain before our company were sent to Oregon in fifty nine."

"As y'all heard me tell 'im, the story that got to us in sixty was that Captain Coburn were killed by the Indians when he were out on patrol. I'd like to say that I can't believe that they'd just leave him behind without checking to see whether he were alive or not, but some of those officers was real skunks, especially the ones who was trying to curry favour with the old bastard, the Colonel."

"The next year the First Dragoons were renamed to the First Cavalry, and then we went to war. When the war were done, we got ourselves stationed out here, and as our time was up in seventy, when they started talking about sending all of us here down to Fort Yuma Al, Jeff and I all mustered out of the Army to settle down here."

"But that's not the end of Captain Coburn's story. You see, Miss Kathleen were found, some traders done heard of a white girl with the tribes up there after Captain Coburn were supposedly killed, and they went in and traded for her to get her back, her and her daughter."

Sarah went white at that last, but Mike shook his head, putting up his hands to placate her. "No! She ain't no Indian's baby, she's Captain Coburn's! Word is, they just couldn't wait until they were hitched, and she were already carrying his baby when her daddy got killed, she just didn't know it!"

"The way we heard it, when the women of the tribe found out that she was carrying a baby, they told all the braves that she was off limits, 'cause babies were sacred to them or some such, and they insisted that she couldn't be forced to accept none of the braves or be messed with while she was a new mother, and that's when she were rescued and taken back to her aunt on the east coast, her and her baby."

Sarah and Chuck looked at each other and Sarah said. "We have to tell him!"

Chuck nodded, but looked concerned. "Yes, but how? How do we tell him that not only the woman that he gave living for when he thought she died is alive, but that he has a thirteen year old daughter as well?"

Sarah turned to quickly embrace Mike, saying. "Thank you for telling us this Mr Tucker. Now we need to find Uncle John so you can tell him that he's a father, and that his lady's alive."

* * *

They left the store, with Big Mike locking up as they hurried back to the stable, hoping that Casey would have returned, but alas he was nowhere to be seen.

Sarah got Tom to send men out to find John (fully expecting that it could take a while, given that Big Mike had told her that there were over a hundred saloons in town), and come and get her when they found him.

She looked Tom in the eye. "Make sure they know not to approach him, just find him and come get me, it will be safer for me to talk to him than anyone else."

Chuck cut in at that point. "Come get _US_ , Tom, not just her."

Tom looked from one to the other and nodded, going to send the men out to look for Casey.

Sarah looked ready to argue about Chuck's insistence, but she just came into his arms and buried her face in his chest.

Chuck rubbed her back and told her. "It'll be OK."

Her response was muffled by his shirt, but he could still hear her. "How can this be OK?"

"I…. no _we'll_ make it be OK, that's how!"

She didn't answer, other to nod into his chest.

They were still standing like that when a woman burst into the stables calling out. "Al? Al Honey, we need to go hide somewhere for a while, there are a lot of soldiers running around town out of uniform, looking for someone…."

At that point she stopped, as she realised that a number of those very same soldiers that she was trying to warn Al about were right there in the stable, but Sarah had started when she heard her voice.

Lifting her face from Chuck's chest, she stepped back to look at the woman, saying "Tante Jeanne?" hesitantly.

The woman stepped forward to peer at her hesitantly. "Elana? Elana child, is that you?"

Sarah gave a teary smile and rushed to embrace her.

After their teary reunion, Sarah tried to wipe the tears away and said. "Actually, it's not Elana Truffaut any more Tante Jeanne, it's Sarah, Sarah Barton. Well, it's really Sarah Bartowski, but most people don't know that name."

Miss Jeanne pulled back to smile at her. " _Bartowski?_ Surely you could have come up with a better name than that child?"

Sarah smiled and reached her hand out to Chuck, when be came over, she put her arm around him and said. "I didn't come up with it Tante Jeanne, it's my husband's name, this is my husband. Chuck. More formally, Charles Bartowski, or Colonel Charles Barton to most people."

The woman stared at her. "You're married? No? Really?"

Sarah nodded happily. "Really!"

Tante Jeanne looked up at him. "We will be having words young man. You need to convince me that you are good enough for our little Elana, sorry, Sarah."

She looked around at Al, to confirm that he was out of earshot, before leaning in to whisper. "Actually, my name is Jane now, Jane Bentley."

She pulled back and gave Sarah a look of regret. "I had to run after your father was taken, because Jacques gave me up, trying to save his own sorry neck. In fact I believe that he gave up everyone except for you, not that it did him any good. Henri and I escaped together, and the last I heard he was still working the river boats, we've kept in contact via the mail."

"I kept going past the Mississippi. I got to New Mexico and managed to get onto a freight wagon train heading west as the Widow Bentley. I left the wagon train in San Diego because I'd heard that the Los Angelinos were trying to join the Confederacy, and I didn't want to be back in the middle of that again. I stayed in San Diego until the end of sixty two, there wasn't much to do there but at least I was relatively safe."

"By the end of sixty two, though, the smallpox was getting closer to San Diego and I decided to get out while I could, so I packed up what I had and headed north. I think I just got out before the smallpox hit the town. There hadn't been many chances to make money in San Diego unless I was ready to go whoring, and I hadn't sunk that far yet, so I was pretty much penniless when I arrived in Los Angeles."

"I was checking out what opportunities there were in Los Angeles and I got to talking with a woman who was trying to turn the Cantina that she'd inherited when her louse of a husband got himself killed into a respectable place that she could run without shame, the Widow Grimes, Bolonia. Bolonia is a lovely lady, and a great cook, an amazing cook, but she didn't have the first idea about how to run a business, let alone how to change it into something better."

"We talked for a while, and she asked me if I could help her. At first I told her that I couldn't, but then I realised that this could be the chance that both of us needed, so we agreed to have a try at it. The first thing that had to go was that name. The Grimy Cantina, really? I suggested that she call it something nice like Bolonia's Cafe, and she nodded, but when I saw the sign out front the next day it said La Cafeteria Dos Viudas."

Sarah and Chuck both grinned at that, and Jane raised her eyebrow.

"So he speaks Spanish, that's impressive in a Northerner."

Sarah beamed up at Chuck "Oh, there's so much about him that's impressive Tante Jeanne, but he's not a Northerner."

Jane snorted at that and said. "I don't need to hear that child, and try to remember, it's Aunt Jane now, though I must admit I do miss being called Tante Jeanne. But what do you mean he's not a Northerner?"

"Chuck was New Orleans born and bred, his family name, our family name, is Bartowski, but his Army records are for Barton."

Jane raised her eyebrow at that, indicating that they'd go back to that later, but continued.

"Anyway, I tried to talk her out of it, but Bolonia wasn't going to be swayed, it was the Two Widows Cafe and that was that. We repainted it inside and out, and we sat down to work out and write up a menu board. I found a local boy, Jorje, who was big enough to deal with most trouble makers and he became our bartender, and Bolonia found a few local girls to serve tables. I manage the business and help out wherever I'm needed while Bolonia runs the kitchen"

"It started off slow, but word soon got around about her food and more people started coming in. As things picked up, Bolonia found a few local boys who could make up a decent mariachi band, and when they weren't playing, they were helping serve or clean up."

"If the girls want to, they can dance with the customers for tips, but it's _only_ dancing, if the customer tries to push for more, well if Jorje can't handle him, the double barrel under the bar sure can. If one of the girls tries to take it further to make more money, she's fired and Bolonia tells her family what she did. I think that's worse than the customer's fate actually."

"We've been doing pretty good, we're not rich but we've got enough that we don't need to work if we don't want to. We make enough from the rental properties and other investments I've made now that we could both live comfortably off that."

"Anyway, Al and Mike arrived in sixty six, or more to the point _Jeff_ , Al and Mike arrived. Jeff came into the Two Widows one night and started to make a bit of a ruckus, not nasty but loud, and I was about to get Jorje to throw him out. Then Al came in and tore into him for disturbing a nice place like this, saying that if he wanted to behave like that there were a hundred other saloons in town and made him apologise to us, it was sweet, really."

"After he'd sent Jeff on his way, Al asked what the Two Widows was and I explained what Bolonia had wanted and what we'd done with the place. That got his interest because he likes good food, well you can see that, so he stayed for a meal and the next time they got a pass to leave the barracks, he brought his cousin Mike along with him."

"They both became regulars, started putting on weight and courting the two of us, Al's courting me and Mike's courting Bolonia of course. About four years after that, word was going around that they were closing down the Drum Barracks and moving everyone down to Fort Yuma. Al, Mike and Jeff all had their time for re-enlistment coming up, so Al and Mike talked Jeff into mustering out with them so they could start the stable here together."

She looked over at Jeff. "He may drink too much, but he's got a good heart and he's wonderful with the horses."

She looked at Sarah. "So that's what I'm doing here. Now, what are you doing here with all these soldiers who are trying to pretend that they aren't?"

* * *

Sarah looked down before saying quietly "I want to tell you Tante Jeanne, but there's a lot that I can't. And at the moment we've got a bigger problem, our" (grabbing Chuck's arm) "partner turned out to have been Al and Mike's officer back in the Indian wars and we heard his story for the first time tonight. Apparently in fifty eight his fiancé was taken by the Indians and he was told there was no point in looking for her because she'd be dead or worse before he could find her, and then in sixty he was shot off his horse and abandoned by his troop, left for dead."

She drew a breath before continuing, they'd only just heard all this and it was still a bit raw. "By the time he'd managed to walk back to their camp, they'd all packed up and left, so he tried to walk out to the nearest town, but he came across a prospector's camp. The prospector was dead from snake bite, so he buried him, took his horse and everything else, including the man's name, and went back to Louisiana to start a new life."

"After he told us that, he left, presumably to go start drinking. But the thing is, Mike told us that his fiancé was found and rescued, along with his baby, just after he supposedly died, so now we're trying to find him to tell him that. That's who all those soldiers are looking for."

Jane looked thoughtful. "What does this man look like?"

Sarah described Casey and Jane nodded. "I thought so, he's at the Two Widows, or at least he was when I left to come for Al."

Sarah turned to run out the door, but Chuck grabbed her arm to stop her, calling out. "Tom, John's at the Two Widows, can we have a detail to go with us please?"

Tom nodded and signalled seven or eight troopers to get their rifles, doing the same himself, but when Hattie stepped up to come with them, Sarah went to say something and Hattie cut her off.

"Sarah, you may have known Johnny longer, but I've known him more than you have, so if you think I'm going to stand aside and not be a part of making sure he gets back here OK, you're a fool girl!"

Sarah nodded at that, but glanced Tom's way.

Hattie sighed and turned to Tom. "This wasn't how I wanted to have this conversation with you Tom but yes, I've been with Johnny in the past. We're no more than friends who care about each other now but I _was_ going to tell you about that at some point, because I'm coming to believe that these two" (waving at Chuck and Sarah) "have it right. If we're going to have something together, the secrets have to be told. I hope that you can see past that, but for now we need to go get Johnny."

Tom nodded and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. "Yes we do, and thank you."

As they went to head out the door, Jane spoke up. "Aren't you all forgetting something?"

They turned to look at her expectantly. "You don't know where the Two Widows is! Follow me."

With that she pushed past them and hurried out the door.

In the Two Widows, they found Casey drinking at a quiet table in the corner, Sarah was pleased to note that at least he'd had a meal, so he wasn't just drinking. Sarah signalled Tom and the men to stay back and she and Chuck went to Casey's table. When she sat down, Casey looked at her, but didn't say a thing.

After that had gone on for a few minutes, she spoke up. "Uncle John, you need to come back to the stable. We need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about, and now if you don't mind I have some forgetting to get back to."

"Kathleen's not dead!"

That sure got his attention. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"That was what Mister Tucker was trying to tell you when you left, she was found and recovered just after they thought that you died, her and your daughter."

He just stared at her for about a minute. "What?"

"You know how you didn't wait until you were married? Well apparently she was already carrying your baby when her father was killed, and when the women of the tribe found that out, that protected her from being interfered with by the braves. She was found by traders and they bought her back, now she's back east with the baby, so you need to come with us so that we can find them and reunite you with your family."

Casey looked from her, up to Chuck, and Chuck nodded, at that Casey slumped down at the table.

Chuck looked him over carefully, but when Sarah looked at him in concern, he nodded to say that he'd be OK. With that he turned and walked to the bar where Jane was, asking what he owed for John's meal and drinks. When she tried to tell him not to worry about it, he fixed her with a look that told her that she'd do it his way sooner or later, so she nodded and told him a figure.

He dropped enough money to cover that, and then some, onto the bar and then asked whether they could deliver food and drink to the stables for their party, as they hadn't eaten yet?

Jane said "We can do that, for how many?"

When he responded. "Forty hungry men."

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head, and she said that she'd have to check with the cook. Five minutes later, she was back and said that they could have it there within the hour.

Chuck thanked her and dropped a wad of notes on the bar (he'd just multiplied what she'd told him for Casey by forty), turning to leave.

Jane snapped "Wait a minute!" as she reached for the money.

She quickly counted the money he'd dropped and pushed about a third of the notes back across the bar to him, saying. "This" (holding up what she'd kept) "is more than enough to cover the food and drink."

Chuck was going to argue, but he was too tired, so he just nodded and quietly said. "Merci Tante Jeanne."

That got him a pointed look, but also a warm smile "Vous êtes les bienvenus Charles."

With that, Chuck returned to the table. He went around to Casey's side and boosted him to his feet, both he and Sarah chorusing "Revoir Tante Jeanne" as they pointed Casey at the door, hearing "Revoir ma chère" as they left.

They had a minor run in with the so called law of Los Angles (they were no more than thugs with badges) on the way back to the stable, but luckily Casey was still capable of acting sober enough to fool men like that. Between having a United States Marshal's badge waved in their faces and seeing just how big and how well armed this party was, the deputies quickly backed down and left them alone.

When they got back to the stable, Mike and Al took Casey aside and told him the full story of what had happened with Kathleen and the baby, and by the time they'd finished the food had arrived. It was just as good as Jane had said, and the mountain of food had entirely disappeared by the time they were done. Of course, Chuck had been telling the truth when he said that they were hungry, and Al, Mike and Jeff consumed their fair share of it as well.

While they were waiting for the food, Chuck, Sarah and a luggage carrying guard detail had gone over to the Lafayette to get them all booked in and leave their luggage in their rooms. As usual, they had to share rooms, because few hotels outside the big cities could handle twenty or more rooms for one party, but it was better than sleeping outside.

They got more of Al, Mike and Jeff's story over dinner, Mike took over telling the story as he was by far the biggest personality out of them. They were coming to see why Jeff referred to it all as 'Big Mike's.

As Mike (and Jane) had already told Sarah and Chuck, when there was talk about closing down the Drum Barracks and sending everyone down to Fort Yuma in seventy, Al and Mike had talked Jeff into joining them and mustering out of the Army to stay in Los Angeles and open a stable together.

They'd all been saving their money, so between them they had around $5000 and they were getting a plan together that they hoped would stretch that far enough to get the business started.

One of the properties that Bolonia and Jane owned and rented out was a stable close enough to the downtown area to cater for the hotels and businesses there, and when they heard about their plans, they told Al and Mike that they could rent it for a bit under the normal rates.

Their next worry was horses. By saving on the rent for the stable with Bolonia and Jane, they'd hopefully be able to afford to get enough decent horses to make the business viable, but it would still take a fair bit of the money that they had available.

That problem was solved for them by the Army, or more specifically the Quartermaster at the Drum Barracks. Al, Mike and Jeff had been well liked and respected by those in the 1st Dragoons, and hence the 1st Cavalry. They'd been good troopers, and they'd made sure the Company's horses were OK. There had been more than a few occasions when parts of the 1st Dragoons or 1st Cavalry had gotten out of a bad situation 'cause their horses had gotten them away from the ones chasing them, and that had been put down to how well they'd looked after the horses.

Because of that, the Quartermaster had written off twelve horses as worn out and needing to be retired, and sold them to Albert Powell, Michael Tucker and Jeffrey Barnes for $50 apiece, four to each man. While he was at it, he disposed of some old saddles and tack and an escort wagon that were written off as not worth repairing any more to them for a nominal fee of $50 as well.

The Quartermaster had also been ordered to dispose of any 'unapproved' weapons that were in the armoury, because the new commander was a stickler for the rule book and would not allow anything but the 'approved' Colt Army .44 Colt Revolvers and Sharps .50-70 carbines to be carried in his command.

As he didn't like the new commander much (he'd sat out the war back in Washington but looked down on those who had fought the war), the Quartermaster did exactly as he was told and boxed up the dozen Remington New Army .46 cartridge revolvers and dozen Winchester Yellow Boy repeater rifles in .46 Short with holsters, saddle scabbards and all associated equipment that were in the armoury (these had been issued to the Regiment for trials when there was talk of making .46 Short a standard round after the war) and 'disposed' of them to Al, Mike and Jeff for $50. He included all the .46 Short and Long ammunition they had as it did not fit any of the 'approved' weapons (those officers and men who had had their revolvers converted to use .46 cartridges in the war had sent them home when the .44 Colt revolvers were issued).

Of course, there was nothing wrong with the horses, wagon or other equipment, it was a parting gift from their friends in the 1st Cavalry to get them set up in their new lives.

Given that they now had what they needed to make a start, and it had cost them a whole lot less than they'd expected, Al and Mike brought up what they'd originally been thinking of as their long term goal once they had the stable running well, opening a store as well.

Knowing what resourceful women they were courting, Al and Mike had talked to Jane and Bolonia, and sure enough, they also owned a store near the stable that they were renting out, and were quite happy to rent it to them as the current proprietor was having trouble making the rent. They made a deal with him to buy the existing stock in the store for $500 (he'd wanted $1000, but they'd haggled for a bit over the fact that it obviously wasn't selling and he agreed to take $500 so that he left with something and didn't have to dispose of it somehow).

So that was how they ended up with Powell's Livery Stable and Tucker's Store, Al and Jeff worked in the stable, with Mike helping out when it got busy, and Mike ran the store. Mike would have been better off sticking with running the store by himself and having Jeff help out when he needed a hand, but he couldn't say no when Bolonia begged him to give her fool son Morgan a job there, so he had to put up with him making a mess of things for her sake.

When Jeff got himself drunk enough to go along with a group of fools taking off to make themselves rich in the gold strike down in Julian, they'd stupidly listened to Morgan when he'd said that he had an Indian friend who could help out at the stable. They'd agreed to hire this Lester because Indians know horses, don't they?

Problem was, Lester wasn't a _real_ Indian, he was one of those other ones that got brought in as cheap labour like the Chinamen, but they didn't work as well, and this one didn't work at all.

Now that Jeff was back where he belonged though, Lester was gone! Jeff was a third owner in the two businesses as they'd gone in with equal shares, so there was no question of anyone taking his place, even if they _were_ any good.

* * *

After they'd finished dinner, packed up the dishes to take back to the Two Widows in the morning and set the guard details for the night, they went across to the hotel, and it didn't take long before everyone (but the guards) was asleep.

First thing in the morning, Sarah and Chuck coded a message to telegraph to Tolbert, Ives and Jager to start the search for Kathleen McHugh and her daughter, and they took it down to the telegraph office as soon as they had a detail to accompany them. They went by way of the Two Widows to return the dishes and thank them for the wonderful meal.

On the way back from the telegraph office, they went to Al's stable to check on their mules, but there was a ruckus going on and their mules were milling about in agitation. The little dark haired man (or woman, it was hard to tell) that Mike had thrown out of the store the previous night was shouting at Al.

"You can't do this to me, I know my rights, you can't just toss me aside just because that drunk came back with his tail between his legs..."

Sarah cut him off. "Stop shouting! You're disturbing our mules!"

He turned around at that and stopped as he almost salivated at the sight of her, his eyes sliding over her form lasciviously.

"Oh I'm so sorry lovely lady, I would have taken more care if I'd realised that they belonged to someone as beautiful as you." He obviously thought that this was a good line, as he had an oily smile plastered across his face as he stepped towards her, but he stopped abruptly as someone had stepped in front of him.

As his eyes swept up over the form in front of him, he took in the guns in their worn holsters and the lean and dangerous look as his eyes travelled up, and up to the bearded face with the grim expression glaring down at him. He almost pissed himself and stepped back when he caught the look that Chuck was giving him.

Chuck looked over his head at Al and asked. "Al, what do you owe this... person, for the time he's put in?"

Al frowned. "Well I suppose that it'd come to $5 for the last two and a half weeks, but he's hardly done more than $2 worth of work, if that, and he's done more damage than that!"

Chuck shook his head and pulled a $5 note out of his pocket, throwing it at the man and saying. "Take that and go, and don't come near here again!"

The little man, Lester obviously, puffed out his chest as far as it could go and had started to say "You can't tell me what to do..." when Chuck put his hand on his revolver. He DID piss himself that time, and clamped his mouth shut before running out the door clutching the $5 note.

Sarah waited until he was out the door before she burst out laughing, stretching up on tiptoe to kiss Chuck's lips briefly before saying. "If it was anyone else, I'd swear that you enjoyed that, scaring him so bad that he pissed his pants, Chuck Bartowski!"

Chuck grinned and put his arm around her, kissing the top of her head. "Truth to tell, I did a little. It just riled me, him looking at you like you were a piece of meat like that and talking to you that way."

Al looked from one to the other with a laugh and said. "I don't know that I'll ever understand you folk, but I do know that I likes you! I'll just get you that money Chuck."

Chuck waved that away, telling him not to worry about it, but Al insisted, so he eventually gave in and told him to take it off the bill for their mules' stable fees. They stayed for a while, giving their mules a bit of attention and talking to Al and Jeff, then headed back to the hotel.

When they'd left, Al commented to Jeff. "You know, for such a nice man, Chuck makes a good show of being dangerous" but Jeff shook his head "That's not a show Al!" and told him how he'd met them, and what Chuck had done to that gambler who'd intended to take advantage of Sarah. Al's expression was thoughtful after that, and more than a little shocked.

* * *

Later that day, Chuck and Sarah were in Mike's store (which _was_ known to the locals as Big Mike's), talking to him about some things that they were after, when the little Mexican who was with Lester the night before barged in, interrupting them to tell Mike that Al had fired Lester and he had to make Al take Lester back!

Mike cuffed him around the head and told him off. "Don't you know no better than to interrupt me when I'm talking to customers boy? And you can forget about me talking to Al, there's no way that I'd ever try to talk him into taking that useless fool back, we should never have hired him in the first place! And we wouldn't have if you hadn't lied to us and made out that he was a real Indian!"

When Mike said that it was only because of Chuck here that Lester got paid for the time that he'd wasted at the stable, Morgan (as that was who it was) looked at the pair that Mike had been talking to.

This Chuck was obviously the man that had run Lester off, though he didn't seem nowhere near as big and scary as Lester had made out, but the woman was just as beautiful as he'd said.

Morgan was dangerously close to acting just as Lester had to Sarah, and Chuck was in the process of stepping in front of her when Mike cuffed him around the head again, harder than before.

"What's wrong with you boy? You don't go making eyes like that uninvited at a lady! Especially a respectable married lady who's here with her husband!"

Morgan flinched away from him. "Ow! Why'd you go do that for big Mike? You got no call to go hitting me like that!"

Mike growled at him. "Are you deaf boy? I jus' _told_ you what you done got hit for! You was plumb rude, making eyes at the lady like that!"

"But Big Mike..."

Mike glared at him. "Get out of here boy, and tell that fool Lester that if he ever comes round here or the stable again, he'll get the wuppin' that he shoulda got for doin' what he done! Tell him to stay clear of the Two Widows, too, I won't have him bothering your Mama or Miss Jane any more!"

He looked at Morgan for a moment before adding. "Matter of fact, if he knows what's good for him, he'll think long and hard about getting out of town, because if me or Al see him again, he's gunna get himself a wuppin' like he's never had before!"

Morgan only got "But..." out before Big Mike grabbed him by the scruff of the neck like he had the night before and dragged him to the door, throwing him out bodily and slamming the door behind him.

After he'd slammed the door, Mike looked at them apologetically and said. "That was Bolonia's boy, sorry. I do love that woman but whenever I see or hear him, I just want to wring his damn fool neck!"

Sarah and Chuck had to hide their smiles at that, because they could well understand Mike's point of view after what they'd just seen and experienced, especially after dealing with Morgan's friend Lester earlier that morning.

* * *

As they were heading back to the stable (where most of their party were congregated) from Mike's store, Sarah suddenly stopped, because she'd just realised what had been bothering her all night, and she wasn't at all happy about it.

Uncle Sam had known about Uncle John's real identity for over six years now, but he'd never told her or Chuck about it, not even when he'd put the three of them together as a team.

With that realisation, she turned around and stormed off towards the telegraph office, because as far as she was concerned, Uncle Sam owed the both of them an explanation, and it had better be a good one! The wording of the coded telegram was the tersest that she'd ever used with Uncle Sam, but when she thought about how he'd kept that secret from her and Chuck for so long, she was furious!

There wasn't much that they could do until they received replies about Kathleen and her daughter, so they were spending a fair bit of time at the Two Widows. They were taking most of their meals there, and Sarah was enjoying catching up with Tante Jeanne (because she HAD been like an aunt to her in New Orleans up until her father got himself caught), so it made sense for them to spend time there.

Initially Chuck had tried to give Sarah and Jane time alone to talk, but Sarah quickly dragged him into their discussions, because she was a different person from the girl she was before she met him. The girl she was before didn't want anyone to know anything about her, in case they tried to use it against her, now though, she had someone she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, so she wanted to share with him the events that had helped create the girl who married him.

Besides which, aside from Uncle Sam etc, Tante Jeanne was as much family as Sarah had nowadays, so she wanted Tante Jeanne to get to know, and love, the man that she'd married too.

To fill in time, Adele, Ellie and John, and some of the troopers, were swapping cooking tips with Bolonia. Bolonia wasn't a complicated woman, she loved to cook and share that with people who appreciated it. She was also picking up things from Adele and Ellie, even John, that she hadn't known before, so she was happy as could be.

There was one major disadvantage of hanging around the Two Widows though, Bolonia's son Morgan. With the memory (and intelligence) of a guppy, he'd plumb forgot about Chuck and Sarah's involvement in his being thrown bodily out of Mike's store twice inside 24 hours, or his friend Lester being fired from Al's Stable, and in his mind they were his new best friends.

Having someone bouncing around like a fawning puppy dog might have been amusing at first, but it quickly became wearing, especially when he kept staring at and trying to touch or hug Sarah, Ellie and Hattie (for some reason he didn't fawn over Adele). The three women were beautiful, and so were used to men's attention, but the inappropriate stares and even more inappropriate touching made them feel uncomfortable and irritated, and more often than not furious.

The most effective deterrent to this behaviour was actually John. Chuck was often on the verge of violence to Morgan because of his behaviour towards Sarah and Ellie, and Hattie too, but John had been fiercely protective of Sarah since she was a girl, and that had extended to Ellie and Hattie as well, so whenever Morgan started making them uncomfortable, or approached them, John would growl at him. The implied (but imminent) threat of violence conveyed by that growl would be enough to make Morgan retreat, whimpering, but all too soon he'd forget and start again.

* * *

In the time that they'd been in Los Angeles, John's umbrella of protection had extended to Anna Wu, the young Chinese woman that Morgan regarded as his girlfriend (even though that thought was obviously the farthest from Anna's mind), as well. Tante Jeanne had quietly filled Sarah and Chuck in on Anna's background after they met her, and it was a terrible story.

Anna's family had fallen out of favour back in China, and most of the younger members of the family (including her) had been rounded up and sold off into indentured service in America. When she arrived, Anna had been sold to a brothel in San Francisco, and she unfortunately hadn't managed to escape being abused like the rest of the girls when she was sold into prostitution, but she did have one thing in her favour that most of those poor girls didn't.

Before her family had fallen out of favour and were rounded up to be sold off, Anna had been in training to become a warrior priestess, and after being subjected to the abuse she first received, she'd fought back, killing the man who had paid to do whatever he wanted to her (Chinese girls especially were a cheap commodity in San Francisco at that time) and taking his money, clothes (to cover up what they made her wear in the brothel) and whatever else was of use to her, she'd escaped.

Anna had stowed away on the first ship she saw leaving San Francisco, and jumped ship at its next landfall. She didn't know that she was in Los Angeles until she'd talked to some Chinese people in town. Unfortunately, the Tongs were in Los Angeles too. Ben Lo Pan headed up the Los Angeles contingent of the Tong that had bought her in San Francisco and was quite powerful, so she'd spent most of her time hiding from them.

She should have stayed in hiding the day that she met Morgan, but she couldn't just sit there and watch as he was beaten by the group of young men, even though she knew from hearing what he'd said to them that he'd brought it on himself.

As Mike had so ably stated, Morgan was a fool, and his lack of wit had led him to be moulded into an even bigger fool by Simon Grimes, his idiot English stepfather, that lecherous slime Lester, and the piles of Penny Dreadfuls that he took from Mike's store without permission (Mike just took them out of his pay because they didn't sell much anyway).

They had no idea what Morgan's stepfather's motivation may have been, he may have actually believed that he was helping the boy, given that he lacked wit himself, but it was obvious that Lester's motivation was simply to ridicule him. As well as lacking in wit, Morgan lacked in size, or indeed any redeeming feature. The only thing that he could excel at apparently was growing a beard, as he'd sported a full beard by the time he was fourteen or fifteen.

Simon may have encouraged him to try to make the boy feel better about himself, but he'd only made the situation worse, as Morgan would swagger about, loudly saying that real men wore beards, which of course won him no friends, and prompted many a beating from those who took offence to him saying that they weren't real men if they didn't have a beard.

Lester, of course, delighted in taking advantage of this, goading him into accosting women by telling him that women couldn't resist a man with a beard, and they were only pretending to be uninterested because proper women were submissive to men's wishes. He did this purely to laugh at Morgan being lambasted and/or slapped by the women he accosted, or better yet, beaten up by their male companions.

All this drivel from his stepfather, Lester and the Penny Dreadfuls (which only reinforced the crap that Lester was telling him) had combined to convince Morgan that he was irresistible to women, all evidence to the contrary. That was why, when Anna saved _him_ from the group of youths who he'd managed to goad into beating him, his delusions somehow turned it around so that in his mind (for want of a better term) he'd saved _her_ , so she was beholden to him and she was his girlfriend.

All of this had happened about six months before their party had arrived in Los Angeles. At the time, Anna could think of little other than getting away from Morgan, but she couldn't resist when he wanted to take her to his mother's cafe because she hadn't eaten in days, or eaten properly in weeks for that matter.

When Jane saw her wolfing down the food the way she was, she understood what she was seeing as she'd been in that position herself more than once in her life, so she quietly told Bolonia to keep the food coming, and to keep Morgan away from the girl. When Anna had slowed down, Jane had sat down with her, and with some difficulty (as Anna spoke very little English at the time), she got the story of what had happened to her, and the predicament that she was in.

Anna's story broke Jane's heart, all the more so because it was similar to what had started her down the path of the life that she'd led, herself. When Anna had finished, and she'd held her as she cried, she managed to get it through to her that she would be staying with her, at least until they found a way out of her current problem.

Morgan had whined when Jane announced that Anna was coming home with her, because he'd wanted to show off his 'girlfriend' to his 'friends' (basically, anyone who'd laughed at him behind his back instead of to his face). That had been enough to make Bolonia cuff him around the head and go off at him, telling him to leave the girl alone.

Jane took Anna home and gave her a place to sleep, a place that was her's for as long as she wanted. She got Anna clothes that wouldn't stand out in Los Angeles, taught her English, and Spanish as well, and nursed her body and soul back to health. As Anna's English (and Spanish) improved, she'd started helping out at the Two Widows, in the kitchen or serving. Everyone else at the Two Widows did what they could to keep Morgan away from her, and she was healing, slow as the process was.

 **A/N: Yes, I do know that Penny Dreadfuls were a British thing and they were called Dime Novels in the US, but the name Penny Dreadful is so much more evocative, so I think I'll just say that it's a universal term in my world. ;^)  
**

 **The .44 Colt round was developed to convert the Colt 1860 Army revolver to cartridges. Seeing as Colt had most of the market back then, they would have had little trouble pressuring the Army into making the .44 Colt Army revolvers standard issue. Sharps rifles and carbines converted to .50-70 cartridges were standard issue after the war.**

 **As for why Tom and his men were using Yellow Boys and S &W Model 3s in .46 Short, they weren't standard issue. Tom's team were special and had different needs from most soldiers, so they had repeater rifles for more firepower and the Model 3 revolvers because they were quicker to reload (they had the Remington Army revolvers before the Model 3 came out).**

 **OK, after going to and fro for a while on this, Chuck Versus the Daemon - Revised will finish here as I'm breaking it up the way I did the novels. The story will continue in Daemons and Dragons - Revised, the first chapter of which will probably come out today or tomorrow ;^)**


End file.
